Table of Contents
What happens when a cold air mass moves toward a warm air mass?
When a moving cold air mass meets a warm air mass, that is lighter, it tends to wedge below the latter, thus giving origin to a cold front. The warm air is forced upwards and its ascent causes the formation of clouds.
What are the characteristics of an unstable atmosphere?
To be “unstable”, the lowest layers of an air mass must be so warm and/or humid that, if some of the air rises, then that air parcel is warmer than its environment, and so it continues to rise. This is called moist convection.
When a cold air mass moves underneath a warm air mass?
A warm air mass pushes into a colder air mass (the warm front), and then another cold air mass pushes into the warm air mass (the cold front). Because cold fronts move faster, the cold front is likely to overtake the warm front. This is known as an occluded front.
What is it called when a moving warm air mass moves into a stationary cold air mass?
Warm Fronts
When a warm air mass runs into a cold air mass, it creates a warm front (Figure below). The warm air mass is moving faster than the cold air mass. The warm air mass then flows up over the cold air mass. As the warm air rises, it cools. This brings about clouds and sometimes light precipitation.
What kind of front occurs when a cold air mass replaces a warm air mass?
Cold fronts
A cold front is defined as the transition zone where a cold air mass is replacing a warmer air mass. Cold fronts generally move from northwest to southeast. The air behind a cold front is noticeably colder and drier than the air ahead of it.
What are four characteristics of stable air?
What are the characteristics of stable air? A—Good visibility; steady precipitation; stratus clouds. B—Poor visibility; steady precipitation; stratus clouds. C—Poor visibility; intermittent precipitation; cumulus clouds.
How can you tell if the atmosphere is stable or unstable?
If the air comes back to where it started, the atmosphere is stable. If the air continues to rise the atmosphere is unstable. In the figure above the air in the parcel has ended up colder and denser than the surrounding air. In this case the parcel would sink back to the ground.
What is the difference between stable and unstable atmosphere?
Weather is strongly affected by how stable or unstable the atmosphere is. Stable air means that the weather is likely to be calm. It may rain or snow slowly and steadily, it may be sunny, but the weather will not change quickly. Unstable air means that the weather might change quickly with very little warning.
What causes air masses to move around?
An air mass has roughly the same temperature and humidity. Air masses form over regions where the air is stable for a long enough time. The air takes on the characteristics of the region. Air masses move when they are pushed by high level winds.
What causes air masses to move?
Air masses take on the conditions of the area where they form. Winds and air currents cause air masses to move. Moving air masses cause changes in the weather. A front forms at the boundary between two air masses.
Which is most often a result of warm air mass moving over a cooler air mass?
When a warm air mass moves into an area of cooler air, the boundary between the air masses is called a warm front. The warmer, less-dense air slides up over the cooler, denser air in a wide, gentle slope. As the warm air cools, its relative humidity increases, and the water vapor condenses into clouds.
What is a fast moving warm air mass overtakes a slower moving cold air mass?
When a warm air mass meets and overrides a cold air mass, a warm front forms. The warm air moves up and over the cold and generally brings drizzly precipitation. If a fast-moving cold air mass overtakes a slower-moving warm front and then continues advancing and catches another cold front, an occluded front forms.
What happens when air masses of different temperatures meet?
When air masses with different temperatures meet, they don’t mix together. Instead a narrow boundary forms between them which is called a front. A front is a narrow boundary between two air masses. Usually when fronts occur one air mass is moving into an area while another is moving out.
What happens when air masses meet?
When two air masses meet together, the boundary between the two is called a weather front. At a front, the two air masses have different densities, based on temperature, and do not easily mix. One air mass is lifted above the other, creating a low pressure zone.
What forms when a cold air mass collides with slower moving air?
When a rapidly moving cold air mass runs into a slowly moving warm air mass, the denser cold air slides under the lighter warm air. The warm air is pushed upward along the leading edge of the colder air. Warm air (rising) expands and cools.
What are the significant similarities and differences between air mass weather and frontal weather?
Similarity between air mass weather and frontal weather: Both air mass and fronts determine the climatic conditions. A significant point of similarity is that both air mass weather and frontal weather can result in instability, depending on local conditions.
How fronts and air masses can be used to predict upcoming weather conditions?
Since air masses interact in a relatively predictable way, meteorologists are able to predict weather patterns with some degree of accuracy. … The warm air is pushed upward at a sharp angle, causing moisture to condense rapidly. Heavy precipitation is often the result.
What is a warm air mass?
[′wȯrm ¦er ′mas] (meteorology) An air mass that is warmer than the surrounding air; an implication that the air mass is warmer than the surface over which it is moving.
What kind of density do warm air and cold air masses have?
Terms in this set (11) How does density relate to cold and warm air masses? Warm is less dense and cold air is more dense.
What happens to the warm air mass in an occluded front?
An Occluded Front forms when a warm air mass gets caught between two cold air masses. The warm air mass rises as the cool air masses push and meet in the middle. The temperature drops as the warm air mass is occluded, or “cut off,” from the ground and pushed upward.
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