1. Weather Patterns Review
Ms. Luginbuhl

2. What is an air mass?

3. What is an air mass?
A huge body of air that has similar temperature, humidity, and air pressure throughout it.

4. What are the types of air masses?

5. What are the types of air masses?
Tropical
Warm, form in the tropics, have low air pressure
Polar
Cold, form north of 50 degrees north latitude and couth of 50 degrees south latitude (the poles!), high air pressure
Maritime
Form over oceans, very humid
Continental
Form over land, dry

6. What are the four types of fronts?

7. What are the four types of fronts?
A front is an area where air masses meet and do not mix.
Warm
Cold
Stationary
Occluded

8. What are the four types of fronts?
Cold
Dense
cold air mass moves into a warm air mass -> the warm air is pushed upward
Clouds form and rain or snow may occur
Abrupt (quick) weather, including thunder storms
AFTER: cool, dry air -> clear skies and cooler temperatures

9. What are the four types of fronts?
Warm
Warm air moves over cold air
May cause showers and light rain or scattered clouds, snow in the winter
Warm fronts move more slowly than cold air fronts -> may be rainy or foggy for several days
AFTER: warm and humid

10. Why does a cold front move faster than a warm front?
A cold front moves faster than a warm front because it is easer for a cold (dense) air mass to move the warm (less dense) air mass up and out of the way than it is for a warm air mass to move a cold air mass.

11. What are the four types of fronts?
Occluded
Warm air mass is caught between two cooler air masses
Weather may turn cloudy and rainy or snowy

12. What are the four types of fronts?
Stationary
Warm and cold air masses me and do not move one another
A “standoff”
Causes rain, snow, fog, or clouds
May bring many days of clouds and precipitation

13. Tornados, Hurricanes, & Thunderstorms
Review p. 108 question # 17
Thunderstorms form within large cumulonimbus clouds, or thunderheads.
Lightning is a sudden spark, or energy discharge, as charges jump between parts of a cloud or between the cloud and the ground
A tornado is a rapidly whirling, funnel-shaped could that reaches down from a storm cloud to touch Earth’s surface.
A hurricane is a tropical storm with very strong winds.

14. What is a meteorologist?

15. What is a meteorologist?
A meteorologist is a scientist that studies the causes of weather and tries to predict it.

16. What are isobars and isotherms?

17. What are isobars and isotherms?
Isobars are lines joining places on the map that have the same air pressure.
Isotherms are lines joining places that have the same temperature.

18. What moves weather across the United States
What moves weather across the United States? What direction does it move?

19. What moves weather across the United States
What moves weather across the United States? What direction does it move?
The prevailing westerlies generally push air masses from west to east in North America.

20. High and Low air pressure
High Pressure – generally good weather
Low Pressure – typically bad or wet weather

21. Weather Maps
Textbook page 103