| Global wind patterns. |
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| Occluded front. |
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| A map of the world's climate. |
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Air Masses
There are four types of air masses which create the majority of our world’s various weather,
They are maritime(1) and continental tropical, and maritime and continental polar(2),
all working together,
The oceans warm up and cool down much slower than the land,
This fact is most important if weather you’re to understand,
For it is differing air pressure, between two air masses, that creates an actual weather change(3),
Whether it’s predictable seasonal weather or weather most bizarre and strange.
Where the oceans are warm, hurricane weather can brew,
Creating a warm moist air mass, part of a perilous stew.
If this warm moist air interacts with cool and cloudy maritime air,
You might need to seek sound shelter and say yourself a prayer,
Especially if they dance together in that familiar spiral pattern,
You'll see many a fine tree and house blow down and quickly flatten.
Lashing out at everything that dares get in its way,
Making sure, if there's a next time, you'll be quicker to obey.
1: Maritime in this case means air warmed up or cooled down over the oceans and other
large bodies of water.
2: Polar means northern latitudes. (In Northern Hemisphere.)
3: Since the cooling and warming rate is different for land and sea, this will create
air masses of differing air pressure.
The four basic types of air masses are as follows:
A: Polar Maritime-Warm and moist. Heated from below by water.
B: Polar Continental-Cold and dry in winter, warm in summer because land heats up
quickly.
C: Tropical Maritime-Warm and moist.
D: Tropical Continental-Warm and dry.
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Wind
All planets’ winds are caused by differences in air
pressure(1),
Which, as you know, can have huge effects on everyday weather.
Differing air pressure is caused by uneven heating of the earth,
Caused by the planet’s tilt, a remnant of its gravitational
birth.
Remember that wind is moving air molecules set in motion,
By two air masses of differing pressure showing their devotion.
The boundary where these two air masses meet is called a weather
front,
The greater the pressure difference, the fiercer the winds, making
you sometimes grunt.
Global winds is the movement of air from the equator to the poles,
More stable than local winds, they play a most important climatic
role.
The old sailing ships depended on these winds to sail across the
ocean,
Anxiously hoping they'd be , at least, some sort of locomotion.
1: Wind always blows from areas of high pressure to areas
of low pressure. Think what happens when you release air out of a balloon.
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| North American System. |
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| Cold Front. |
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| Hurricane! |
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Climate:
Climate of an area depends on temperature and precipitation,
Which relates to Earth’s features as well as an area’s
location.
Large bodies of water, mountains, and prevailing winds all have an
effect,
Causing major climate changes that meteorologists can readily detect.
But where you’re located on this planet is a very big factor
indeed,
That is your relationship to earth’s equator and poles do I
so readily concede.
The earth’s tilt causes the sun to heat the earth in an uneven
way,
Which effects the climate of the entire planet including the US of
A.
The equator gets the most direct sun and so there it is quite warm
and dry.
The poles get the least sun where it's so cold, you’ll find
yourself wondering why?
Precipitation is dependent on formation of clouds and where they
move and condense,
Which can sometimes be unpredictable but more often makes scientific
sense.
Where there’s high temperature and little wind, precipitation
is extremely miserly,
Your location relationship to mountains and large bodies of water
also counts most verily.
Mountains steal the water from clouds and there you’ll see
some rain and much snow.
But on the dry side, you’ll find a desert that made the pioneers
say, “Whoa!”
Do remember that climate is the average weather of a geographical
area over a long period of time.
Day to day weather is more unpredictable, we’ll discuss that
in, perhaps, some other rhyme.
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Coriolis Effect
Air masses circulate due to convection currents, just like when you
warm up a can of soup(1),
That is, the warm part rises, being less dense, and the cool part
sinks, over and over like a loop.
You might wonder why wind doesn’t blow north to south or perhaps
vice versa,
I’ll let you in on a secret, it’s the earth’s rotation
which acts as the coercer.
(4)To deflect the winds, depending on
your hemisphere, from west to east(2) or east to west(3),
Speeding your flight in one direction, think about why with new found
scientific zest.
1: See exhibit under “Tectonic Plates.”
2: In the Northern Hemisphere.
3: In the Southern Hemisphere.
4: This defines the Coriolis Effect. The earth
rotates counter clockwise deflecting (more accurately, given the illusion of deflecting) wind towards the right in the Northern
Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.
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| Different types of clouds. |
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| Warm front. |
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| Weather Map-Notice the isobars. |
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Tornadoes
The way air masses move are subject to stern scientific laws.
(1)Warm air ascends and cool air descends,
that’s the basic core(1).
But sometimes, air masses don’t move exactly as you’d
think,
And a turbulent cumulus cloud(2) is sometimes
known to sink.
When this occurs over a mass of cold air, a funnel cloud may form,
And you’ll have a tornado from this strange interplay of cold
and warm.
Rapid condensation fuels this rage, releasing tremendous energy,
The staid air masses are now awoken from their slumbering lethargy.
Why tornadoes behave exactly as they do is still a bit of a mystery,
But warm moist air rising beneath cool dry air seems to be their
history.
It’s kind of like a mini hurricane except more focused and
intense,
And anything that gets into its path will it most readily dispense.
1: Due to differing densities.
2: See “Cloud Exhibit” under weather section.
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What is Weather?
Weather is caused by circulation of air molecules in the atmosphere,
And all weather occurs in its lowest part which is called
the troposphere(1).
Weather is energy and the source of it all is the sun,
Without which, they’d be no weather, nor in fact, anyone.
The earth rotates around the sun at a slight angle so it’s
unevenly warmed.
This causes weather to change from pleasantly dry to, perhaps,
a fierce thunderstorm.
The Equator’s regions get the most sun while the earth’s
poles receive the least.
It’s simply this uneven heating that’s responsible
for stirring the weather beast.
Warm air rises and cool air sinks due to their differing densities,
This basic physical law is what gives weather it’s awesome
propensity.
Temperature and pressure difference between two air masses
is what causes weather,
Without which they'd be a barren planet, so let’s be
thankful how they work together.
1: See exhibit under atmosphere.
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