Air Masses & Density Rules
This two-letter code represents cold, dry air that forms over northern interior regions like Canada. (Can you also give me the name of the air mass)
What is cP (Continental Polar)
On a weather map, this front is drawn as a blue line with triangles pointing in the direction of movement.
What is a Cold Front?
Marked with a red "L", this pressure system features rising moist air that cools to form clouds and rain.
What is a Low-Pressure System?
Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emitted directly from a coal plant exhaust stack is classified as this type of pollutant.
What is a Primary Pollutant (or Point Source)?
Powered by warm tropical ocean waters exceeding 80 F (26.5 C), this massive low-pressure ocean storm features spinning rain bands.
What is a Hurricane?
In air mass classification, the prefixes "Continental" (c) and "Maritime" (m) tell us whether the air mass formed over land or water.
What is the Ocean / Water?
Drawn as a red line with semicircles, this front brings steady drizzle followed by warmer, humid weather.
What is a Warm Front?
Marked with a blue "H", this pressure system brings sinking cool air, clear skies, and calm weather.
What is a High-Pressure System?
While weather refers to short-term daily conditions, climate is calculated using weather data averaged over this minimum timeframe.
What is 30 Years?
Reaching up to 50,000 feet, these massive anvil-shaped storm towers trigger severe rain, hail, and lightning.
What are Cumulonimbus Clouds?
Cold air contracts and packs molecules tightly together, giving it this property that makes it sink beneath warm air.
What is Higher Density (Heavy Air)?
Formed by opposing red and blue symbols pointing in opposite directions, this front stalls out and causes rain for days.
What is a Stationary Front?
These lines drawn on synoptic weather charts connect points of equal atmospheric pressure.
What are Isobars?
Agricultural fertilizer washed across broad fields into local streams by rain runoff is an example of this type of water pollution.
What is Non-Point Source Pollution?
This rapidly spinning funnel storm forms when thunderstorm updrafts lift horizontal rotating air created by vertical wind shear.
What is a Tornado?
(NC Scenarios): This air mass brings warm, muggy air from the Gulf of Mexico up into North Carolina during the spring and summer.
What is mT (Maritime Tropical)?
When a heavy cP air mass collides with a muggy mT air mass over Piedmont, NC, this type of front forms, bringing rapid thunderstorms.
What is a Cold Front?
On a weather map, when isobar lines are drawn very close together, it indicates this wind condition.
What are High Wind Speeds / Severe Wind Gusts?
Solar energy hits Earth as shortwave visible light, but the warmed surface re-radiates heat toward space as longwave radiation.
What is Infrared (Thermal) Radiation?
When upper winds cause a moist weather front to stall over one region for hours, it triggers this hydrologic hazard.
What is a Flash Flood?
Formed over the southwestern deserts and Mexico, this air mass code stands for hot, extremely dry air.
What is cT (Continental Tropical)?
This purple front forms when a fast cold front overtakes a warm front, forcing the warm air mass completely off the ground.
What is an Occluded Front?
Air naturally flows from High pressure to Low pressure, but Earth's rotation deflects these winds clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere due to this effect.
What is the Coriolis Effect
When excess nitrogen and phosphorus cause an algal bloom, decomposing bacteria multiply rapidly and cause aquatic die-offs by draining these nutrients from the water.
What is Dissolved Oxygen (DO) / Hypoxia?
In arid climates, rain evaporating in dry air creates a dense, rapid downdraft that strikes the ground and blasts up a 5,000-foot wall of sand known as?
What is a Haboob (or Dust Storm)?