Question | Answer |
causes changes in the weather | the movement and interaction of air masses |
a large body of air that has similar temperature and moisture throughout | air mass |
(T), forms over the tropics, warm air | tropical air mass |
(m), forms over water, wet air | maritime air mass |
(c), forms over land, dry air | continental air mass |
(P), forms over the polar regions, cold air | Polar air mass |
northern Canada, North Atlantic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean | places where polar air masses form and cause cold winter weather in the U.S. |
A warm air mass that influences the weather in the U.S. and develops over land | continental tropical (cT) |
air masses that cause hurricanes and thunder storms that occur on the East Coast and in the Midwest | maritime tropical (mT) |
What happens when two types of air mases meet | warm air rises |
The boundary between air masses of different densities and usually different temperatures | a front |
A warm air mass that moves over a cold, denser air mass | warm front |
A warm air mass that is caught between two colder air masses | occluded front |
A cold air mass that meets a warm air mass, but the two remain separated | stationary front |
A cold air mass that moves under a warm, less dense air mass | cold front |
causes thunderstorms and heavy rain | cold front |
causes drizzly rain, and then clear, warm weather | warm front |
causes cool temperatures and large amounts of rain and snow | occluded front |
stationary front | causes many days of cloudy, wet weather |
An area in the atmosphere that has lower pressure than the surrounding areas, with winds spiraling toward the center is | a cyclone |
A rotation of air around a high pressure center is called | an anticyclone |
when colder, dense air spirals out of the anticyclone, and moves toward an area of low pressure | How a cyclone is formed |
How a cyclone affects the weather | It causes stormy weather |
How an anticyclone affects the weather | It causes dry, clear weather |