Download Fronts

Air Masses
 Areas
of air that have about the
same density, temperature,
humidity, and pressure.
 Cold air masses usually move south
towards the equator.
 Warm air masses usually move north
away from the equator.
Types of air masses
Maritime (m) – moist air from over the water
 Continental (c) – dry air from over the land

Polar (P) – cool air masses from a sub polar
region
 Tropical (T) – warm air from near equator
 Arctic (A) – VERY cold air coming from the
Arctic


Combine the above to form air masses:
– mP, cP, mT, cT, cA
Fronts
 Fronts
are where air masses meet
 Weather most often occurs along
“fronts”
 Four different types of fronts:
– Cold Fronts
– Warm fronts
– Occluded fronts
– Stationary fronts
Cold Front
Warm Front
Occluded Front
 When
a cold front catches up to a
warm front
Stationary Front
Clouds and precipitation
at the fronts
Occluded Front
clouds and precipitation
Low pressure and
high pressure systems
(Backwards from previous slide)
“Cyclogenesis”
Typical Low Pressure System
More Animations



http://www.mesoscale.iastate.edu/agron206/animations/0
5_cnWfronts.html
http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/conte
nt/visualizations/es2002/es2002page01.cfm?chapter_no=vi
sualization
Cyclogenesis
http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7s.html
Assignment
 In
groups of 2 (assigned by cards):
Locate the Air masses on map with
temperatures provided. After you do
this, compare the data with a map
that has weather stations on it. It
should take no more then 15
minutes to do this.