Chapter 9: Weather

9.1 Weather and Air masses and Fronts

To measure and determine weather, we need to collect a lot of data Wind data, speed and direction is collected using an anemometer. To gather data on air pressure we use a barometer Pressure is spoken of as the barometric pressure Data on precipitation is collected using a rain gauge

And of course, temperature data is gathered using a thermometer These can be wet bulb or dry thermometer An air mass is an extremely large body of air whose properties of temperature and moisture content (humidity), at any given altitude, are fairly similar in any horizontal direction The air mass can cover hundreds of and thousands of square miles An air mass is characterised by its geographic origins These include: (IMPORTANT) cP continental polar cold, dry stable cT continental tropical hot dry, stable air aloft - unstable surface air mP maritime polar cool, moist, and unstable mT maritime tropical, warm, moist, usually unstable These air masses contribute much to local weather patterns Any maritime air mass will contain a great deal of moisture in its make-up Polar air masses will be dry and cold This is important information to the agricultural industry In a map of North America one can see the air masses that affect our lives
Chapter 9 Weather (KWP) Page 1 of 13

When two air masses meet, they will create weather according to the characteristic of the fronts It also depends on the size of the front Cold air is denser than warm air A cold front meeting a warm front will have an effect like a bulldozer A warm front meeting a cold front will act differently The idea of fronts in meteorology came from a Norwegian meteorologist in World War I named Vihelm Bjerknes During the war, he observed how the opposing forces would close in "fronts" When one force would push in it caused displacement in this opposing force. Air masses are not always moving Sometimes an air mass will remain over one area for several months This will leave the area relatively unchanged weather -wise The preceding slide showed an occluded front. This type of front occurs when the cold front and the warm front meet usually head on. Sometimes a cold front will meet with a mass of warm air. In that case the warm air is pushed up. As it rises and it is in contact with the cold air, the water molecules condense causing precipitation. Sometimes it is the warm air mass that is moving This creates a warm front Since warm air is less dense than cold air, when a warm front meets a cold air mass it "coaxes" the air masses away Pushing against the cool air yet still generating cloud formation and precipitation If the two air masses do not meet head on but brush up against each other, they can generate strong winds These winds can sometimes generate the formation of tornadoes or other violent wind patterns Fronts are areas of extreme cyclonic activity as well Since the fronts are either warm or cold, when they meet they begin creating low pressure systems (cyclones) or high pressure systems (anticyclones)
Chapter 9 Weather (KWP) Page 2 of 13

Meteorologists use a unique type of map that shows these areas of differing pressure on the earth *Meteorologists study weather! These pressure areas are marked by the fronts and shown on the map using isobars Isobars are similar to contour lines on a topographical map. However, instead of showing differing elevations, the isobar shows differing pressure areas

Chapter 9 Weather (KWP) Page 3 of 13

Cloud

The cloud formation that occurs can also say much about the front Clouds are basically water molecules in sufficient quantity so as to be visible to the naked eye The type of cloud that forms can tell us about the weather Clouds are visible accumulations of water droplets or solid ice crystals that float in the Earth's troposphere (the lowest part of the Earth's atmosphere), moving with the wind From space, clouds are visible as a white veil surrounding the planet Clouds form when water vapor (water that has evaporated from the surface if the Earth) condenses (turns into liquid water or solid ice) onto microscopic dust particles (or other tiny particles) floating in the air This condensation (cloud formation) happens when warm and cold air meet, when warm and cold air meet, when warm air rises up the side of a mountain and cools as it rises, and when warm air flows over a colder area, like a cool body of water This occurs because cool air can hold less water vapor than warm air, and excess water condenses into either liquid or ice Clouds are defined by both the way they look and how high they are in the atmosphere For example, cirro (meaning "wisp of hair") is a prefix given to high-altitude clouds (above 20,000 feet) Alto (meaning "high" is a prefix given to mid-altitude clouds (between 6000 and 20000 feet) There is no prefix of low-altitude clouds When clouds are by the ground we call them fog And no, fog is not just lazy clouds Nimbo (meaning "rain") as a prefix, or nimbus added as a suffix, in a cloud name indicate that the cloud can produce precipitation (rain, snow, or other forms of falling water) Cumulo (meaning heap) refers to piled up clouds. Strato (meaning "layer") refers to flat, wide, layered clouds Now lets look at the types of clouds and their place in the sky.

Chapter 9 Weather (KWP) Page 4 of 13

Clouds are defined by their height in the atmosphere The cloud formation is determined by this and many other factors. Remember that nimbus means rain These clouds are carriers of much water vapor When this vapor is cools, it condenses and falls as rain

Hail

Rain clouds have a lot of energy In summer when the ground is radiating a lot of heat, that heat forces moisture up into the atmosphere If the ground is hot enough, the resulting coalescing of water vapor will not have a chance to fall as rain The droplet will be forced back up into the cloud where it will encounter very low temperatures The resulting droplet will freeze If the energy from the earth is great enough, the frozen water will attempt to fall but instead will be forced back up into the cloud where it will gain another layer

Sleet

Sleet is another form of precipitation It happens in cold, unstable weather conditions Sleet is rain or melted snow that freezes into ice pellets before hitting the ground Sleet only happens under very specific weather conditions There must be a layer of air near the ground whose temperature is below freezing, where water turns into ice
Chapter 9 Weather (KWP) Page 5 of 13

Above this layer of freezing air must be a layer of a warmer air As snow falls through the warm air, it melts or partially melts into raindrops. As the melted snow falls through the cold layer of air, it re-freezes It forms ice pellets, or sleet, before hitting the ground The main challenge in sleet is the effect is has on driving conditions

Freezing Rain

Freezing rain happens when rain droplets fall through the air thats temperature is below zero and freezes on impact with the ground or another object to form clear ice also known as glaze Generally, freezing rain starts its life as snow, ice, sleet or hail, but passes through a layer of warmer air on the way down This causes it to melt and return to a liquid form As it continues towards the ground, it then briefly passes through colder air again, causing the water droplets to become 'super-cooled' - colder than 0*C but still in liquid form When these super-cooled droplets fall on ground which is close to or below freezing, they can freeze on impact - quickly creating treacherous conditions Freezing rain can have serious effects on driving and walking

Air masses and fronts

To recap, fronts and frontal systems generate weather This weather depends on the characteristic of the particular front Cold dry fronts meeting warm moist fronts will generate rain A warm front, because it is sloping gently, will generate long periods of rain Cold fronts meeting warm air masses may cause great torrents of rain as the warm air is forced over
Chapter 9 Weather (KWP) Page 6 of 13

the cold air mass, but the rain will usually not last long Severe weather is caused by the meeting of large air masses In Canada, we are concerned with the following air masses.... Continental Arctic, Maritime Arctic , Maritime Polar

Jet Stream

We spoke of jet streams earlier The effect they have on weather can be important

9.2 Severe weather systems (page 177-194) Equatorial weather

Near the equator the trade winds affect the weather patterns more than the air masses The intense heat energy from the sun causes great amounts of evaporation This sends water vapor into the atmosphere and bringing much energy with it. In some areas of the equatorial zone, storms are almost a daily event The type of rainfall associated with the high evaporation levels is convectional rainfall This type of rainfall occurs when the sun heats the land surface, the rising air carries with it masses of the water vapor When the air rises to a point where cooling takes place, rain forms There are three main types of rainfall These are, convectional, orographic and cyclonic or frontal From the previous slide we can see that convectional rainfall occurs when there is a large upwelling of water vapor into the atmosphere For any precipitation to occur there must be a vertical movement of air Another type of rainfall occurs when an air mass is pushed up a mountain
Chapter 9 Weather (KWP) Page 7 of 13

In mountainous regions this type of rainfall is quite common Look at how North Vancouver is often clouded while Vancouver is clear and sunny The air cools as it rises causing the water vapor to condense Orography is the science related to mountains Rain caused by mountains is called orographic precipitation When moisture laden air encounters a mountain, it is pushed up As it rises the air cools causing the water vapor to condense causing it to fall as rain One of the results of this is the creation of a rain shadow Once the air mass has lost all of its moisture, it moves to the other side as a dry air mass This is the situation in places like the Okanagan valley Parts of the valley receive very little precipitation Then the air picks up moisture from the lakes and it falls on the eastern side of the lake The last type of rainfall is the cyclonic or frontal rainfall We have already discussed the function of frontal systems and how when they meet, they create various types of unstable weather This type of rain can be torrential in the case of an advancing clod front, or land periods of constant light rain as in the case of an advancing warm front

Hurricane

Hurricanes begin as tropical storms

Chapter 9 Weather (KWP) Page 8 of 13

Where the surface temperature is 27 degrees Celsius for a period of time, the intense evaporation acts like fuel to the growing storm The process by which a tropical cyclone forms and subsequently strengthens into a hurricane depends on at least three conditions; T1. A pre-existing disturbance with thunderstorms 2. Warm (at least 27 C) ocean temperatures to a depth of about 150 feet 3. Light upper level winds that do not change much in direction and speed throughout the depth of the atmosphere (low and shear) Heat and energy for the storm are gathered by the disturbance through contact with warm ocean waters The winds near the ocean surface spiral into the disturbance's low pressure area The warm ocean waters add moisture and hear to the air which rises As the moisture condenses into drops, more heat is released, contributing additional energy to power the storm Bands of thunderstorms form, and the storm's cloud tops rise higher into the atmosphere If the winds at these high levels remain relatively light (little or no wind shear), the storm can remain intact and continue to strengthen Since the moisture of the ocean is the fuel of the hurricane, a hurricane will typically die if it is over land for an extended period of time When hurricanes near land, the devastation caused is extensive Winds of several hundred kilometers per hour pick up anything in its path The incredible pressure of the hurricane causes an imbalance When the hurricane confronts a building that is sealed tight, the pressure difference can cause the building to explode The majority of damage and loss of life in a hurricane is due to the flying debris Hurricanes are named alphabetically and according to their origin

Tornadoes

Tornadoes are another type of cyclonic storm The station model in the previous slide is an American example The temperature is in Fahrenheit Wind speed is calculated in knots and so is universal The wind speed flag shows the strength and the direction of the wind The difference is that tornadoes occur over land Lacking the fuel supplies by a warm body of water, the tornado is less intense than a hurricane This allows meteorologists to track repeat hurricanes and study the causes
Chapter 9 Weather (KWP) Page 9 of 13

A tornado is a narrow, violently rotating column of air that extends from the base of a thunderstorm to the ground Because wind is invincible, it is hard to see a tornado unless it forms a condensation funnel made up of water droplets, dust and debris. Tornadoes are the most violent of out all storms Tornadoes often happen in middle America This is an area called the tornadoes alley Tornadoes cost millions of dollars annually as devastation strikes low income areas

Meteorology

There are several ways that meteorologists use to track weather Some may have heard of the Doppler Radar This is a radar station that can detect pressure changes as they move It can also track storm systems Meteorologists use weather maps which are updated on a daily basis

This information is essential for marine traffic and air traffic A station model is a symbolic representation that shows weather conditions in an area These are included on a weather map allowing for an instant understanding of weather patterns The flag points in the direction of the wind You think of the flag as an arrow

Chapter 9 Weather (KWP) Page 10 of 13

The center is the point of the arrow The barbs show the speed of the wind The circle shows the type of cloud cover Using this a pilot can predict the type of visibility that he/she will encounter Temperature, relative humidity and dew point are all related to one another Temperature is the measure of the energy in the air, relative humidity is the measure of water vapor in the air, and the dew point is the temperature at which the water vapor in the air will begin to condense into liquid water To find dew point, the temperature and wet bulb temperature need to be known The temperature is read straight from a thermometer The wet bulb temperature is the temperature air will cool to when complete evaporative cooling occurs Getting the wet bulb temperature requires their use of a psychomotor or hygrometer. The dew point temperature is the temperature at which the air can no longer hold all of the water vapor which is mixed with it, and some of the water vapor must condense into liquid water The dew point is always lower than (or equal to) the air temperature Humidity is the water vapor in a parcel of air There is absolute humidity and relative humidity Absolute humidity is simply the actual amount of water help in a parcel of air

Relatively humidity

Relative humidity is the ratio of the actual amount of water vapor present in a volume of air at a given temperature to the maximum amount that the air could hold at the temperature, expressed as a percentage Warm air can hold more water vapor than cool air, so a particular amount of water vapor will yield a lower relative humidity in warm air than it does in cool air One of the worlds most puzzling weather challenges is the El Ni o event It is named as such because it was first noticed around Dec 25th
Chapter 9 Weather (KWP) Page 11 of 13

El Ni o is Spanish for the child and is a reference to the god of the Catholics whose birth they celebrate on that day One of the worlds most puzzling weather challenging is the El Nio event It is named as such because it was first noticed around December 25th El Nio is Spanish for the child and is a reference to the god of the Catholics whose birth they celebrate on that day The El Nio event begins in the South Pacific normally, when El Nio is not operating, a giant convection cell forms in the western Pacific between the South American coast and Australia The trade wind push surface water westward and the ocean piles up near Indonesia (sea level around Indonesia is actually 2 feet higher than at Peru!)

This cooler water rising off the coast of Peru brings rich nutrients from the depths This provides abundant food for the food The fishing season is very good when there is no El Nio. During an El Nio event ,for some reason, the trade winds are not strong enough to push the surface water westward When this happens, the warmer water cannot make it to Indonesia This loss of the warm water and the accompanying low pressure system means that the seasonal rains do not fall Indonesia experiences a significant increase in forest fires

Chapter 9 Weather (KWP) Page 12 of 13

The results are many In an El Nio event year, the fishing in Peru is poor Droughts will occur deeper inland in North America and Africa Flooding will occur in places where it is uncommon

Test Information

Air masses Weather Station Diagram Explanation section about El Nio And more..

Chapter 9 Weather (KWP) Page 13 of 13