Download Air Masses, Fronts, Weather Maps

Air Masses, Fronts, Weather
Maps
Seventh Grade Science
Ms. Cardinal
- Air Masses and Fronts
Classifying Air Masses
•Four major types of
air masses influence
the weather in North
America: maritime
tropical, continental
tropical, maritime
polar, and continental
polar.
What are highs and lows?
low pressure
high pressure
- Air Masses and Fronts
Cyclones and Anticyclones
•Winds spiral inward towards the low-pressure
center of a cyclone. Winds spiral outward from
the high-pressure center of an anticyclone.
Isobar Map- lines connect places of
equal pressure
- Air Masses and Fronts
Types of Air Masses
•Air masses can be warm or cold, and humid or dry. As
an air mass moves into an area, the weather changes.
- Air Masses and Fronts
How a Front Forms
•The boundary where unlike air masses meet is
called a front.
- Air Masses and Fronts
Types of Fronts
•Colliding air masses can form four types of
fronts: cold fronts, warm fronts, stationary fronts,
and occluded fronts.
Warm Front
Stationary Front
Occluded Front
- Air Masses and Fronts
Comparing and Contrasting
•As you read, compare and contrast the four types of
fronts by completing a table like the one below.
Front
How It Forms
Types of Weather
Cold front
A cold air mass overtakes a
warm air mass.
Clouds, possibly storms
with heavy precipitation
Warm front
A warm air mass overtakes
a cold air mass.
Clouds, light precipitation
Stationary front
Cold and warm air masses
Clouds, precipitation
meet, but neither can move
the other.
A warm air mass is caught
Clouds, precipitation
between two cold air
masses.
Occluded front
What are weather fronts?
warm air
cold front
warm front
cold air
occluded front
precipitation
cold air
precipitation
cold air
cold air
warm air
cold air
- Predicting the Weather
Weather Station Models
- Predicting the Weather
Reading Weather Maps
•This is the type of weather map produced by the National
Weather Service. It shows data collected from many
weather stations.
- Predicting the Weather
Reading Weather Maps
•Weather maps in newspapers use symbols to show fronts, high- and low-pressure areas,
and precipitation. Color bands indicate different temperature ranges.
How is technology used to study weather?
Weather satellites provide
data about temperature,
winds, moisture, and
cloud cover.