PRESSURE SYSTEMS AND STORMS

PRESSURE SYSTEMS AND STORMS STD: 6-4.4

PRESSURE SYSTEMS • High/Low Pressure Systems are created by warm air rising and cool air sinking combined with the spinning of Earth that causes rotation of air masses

PRESSURE SYSTEMS (cont.) • 2 Types • HIGH usually signals fair weather with winds that circulate around the system in a clockwise direction • LOW counterclockwise circulating winds that often result in rainy and/or stormy weather conditions

STORMS! • Occur when pressure differences cause rapid air movement • Thunderstorms • Tornado • Hurricane

Thunderstorms • A storm with thunder, lightning, heavy rains and strong winds • Usually forms along a cold front but can form within an air mass • Forms within large cumulonimbus clouds

Tornado • Rapidly whirling, funnel shaped cloud that reaches down from a storm cloud • Area of low pressure • Strong winds • Likely to form within the frontal regions where strong thunderstorms are also present

Hurricane • Low pressure tropical storm that forms over water • “eye” of the storm Winds that are spinning in a circular pattern around the center of the storm • Lower the air pressure at the center, the faster the winds blow toward the center of the storm

STORMS CAUSES AND OUTCOMES

PRESSURE SYSTEMS AND STORMS