Air Masses
You have 4 main air masses; Continental Polar (cP),
Continental Tropical (cT), Maritime Polar (mP), and
Maritime Tropical (mT)
What they are called depends on where they
come from:
Maritime - Ocean
Continental - Land
Tropical - Equator
Polar - Poles
Label the air masses: Maritime Tropical (mT), Maritime Polar (mP),
Continental Tropical (cT), and Continental Polar (cP).
Air Masses
What type of weather is found in areas of high
pressure? Warm or Cold? Fair or Stormy?
Why?
What type of weather is found in areas of low
pressure? Warm or Cold? Fair or Stormy?
Why?
Fronts
Fronts are created when two air masses with
different temperatures, moistures, or densities meet!
You have 4 types of fronts: warm, cold, stationary,
and occluded.
Warm Front
Warm Front: A cold and warm air mass meet. The
warm air mass rises over the cold. It brings STEADY
RAIN or SNOW.
Eventually, warm, mild, weather will move into the
area.
Cold Front
Cold Front: A cold and warm air mass meet. The
cold air mass sinks and pushes underneath the
warm air mass.
Cold fronts bring THUNDERSTORMS and then cool,
fair, weather.
Stationary Front
Stationary Front: A cold and warm air mass meet,
but neither have the force to move the other. They
remain stationary, or stay still.
CLOUDS and FOG form. RAIN or SNOW may last for
days.
Occluded Front
Occluded Front: A warm air mass gets trapped
between two cold air masses. The warm air mass
has to rise as the two cold air masses push and
meet in the middle.
A sudden DROP in temperature as the warm air is
cut off from the ground.