Air Masses, Fronts And Depressions Flashcards by Ellie B

What are the 5 air masses in the UK?

Tropical continental 
Tropical maritime 
Polar continental
Polar maritime 
Arctic maritime

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What are air masses?

Large bodies of air that adopt the characteristics of the area of origin, bringing weather with them but also can create weather

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What kind of weather do the tropical air masses bring?

Warm/very hot

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What kind of weather do maritime air masses bring?

Wet weather

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What kind of weather do continental air masses bring?

Dry weather

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What kind of weather do polar and arctic air masses bring?

Cold/very cold

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What are fronts?

Where air masses meet each other, they interact and react to each other and create weather

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What are the 2 types of fronts?

Warm front

Cold front

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What is an anticyclone?

A large mass of subsidising air which produces high pressure at the earth’s surface

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What are the two types of anticyclones?

Cold and warm

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What descending air mass does a cold anticyclone form from?

Either polar continental or arctic maritime

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What are blocking anticyclones?

A large mass of air of high pressure that becomes stationary leading to periods of either intense cold (winter) or heat waves (summer)

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What weather conditions does a cold anticyclone bring?

Extremely cold conditions
Days of continuous frost and freezing temps
Ice
Winter fog

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What weather conditions can a summer warm cyclone bring?

Drought
Low level ozone
Thunderstorms

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What is absolute drought?

Period of 15 consecutive days with less than 0.2mm rainfall

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What is partial drought?

29 days with average daily rainfall not exceeding 0.2mm

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What year was the European heat wave and was it a result of an anticyclone or a depression?

Early July - late sept 2003

Anticyclone

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What were some short term responses to the European heat wave?

Hosepipe ban
Stay indoors
Emergency food supplies

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What was a key long term response to the European heat wave?

Increasing water and electricity supply to meet the demand

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What were some positive economic impacts of the European heat wave?

Rise in tourism

Benefitted retail

What were some negative socio-economic impacts of the European heat wave?

Cost of people taking days off - £7.5-10 million a day
Transport disruption - roads melted, London Underground reached 37 degrees
August death rate 15,000 more than expected

What was a negative environmental impact of the European heat wave ?

Increase in low level ozone

When was the UK Great Storm?

15th-16th October 1987

The Great Storm: what were reasons for vulnerability?

the met office failed to predict the weather front = public weren’t aware of hazards

The Great Storm: what were some socio-economic impacts?

Cost: $1.4 billion 18 deaths thousands of homes without power, not fully restored for two weeks £860 million insurance claims

The Great Storm: what were some environmental impacts?

15 million trees lost | wild boar escaped from enclosures and have established populations

The Great Storm: what were some responses?

- greater observational coverage of the atmosphere by increasing quantity of satellites, aircraft and ship observation - reform of the weather warning process

When and where was the big freeze?

UK and Ireland | December 2009 - Feb 2010

What were some physical causes of the big freeze?

Polar continental air mass brought high pressure and very low temps air mass came over scandinavia high pressure brought clouds = precipitation as snow

The Big Freeze: What were some reasons for vulnerability?

- unprepared with emergency services slow to respond - little could be done to prevent - electricity and heating prices very high = vulnerable - heavy reliance on transport infrastructure

The Big Freeze: what were some socio-economic impacts?

school closure death and injury - road accidents £1.2 billion a day lost from infrastructural disfunction

The Big Freeze: what were some environmental impacts?

food for animals and wildlife short

The Big Freeze: what were some short term responses?

gritting and emergency services response improvements

The Big Freeze: what are some long term impacts?

improve supply of salt

When was the Mali drought?

February - August 2010

Mali Drought: what were some socio-economic impacts?

- inadequate water supplies | - farmers unable to grow crops = residents reliant on expensive food imports - can't afford

Mali Drought: what are some environmental impacts

- desertification - wildlife struggling - soils too dry to grow certain crops

When was hurricane Katrina?

August 2005

Hurricane Katrina: where did it hit?

New Orleans

Katrina: what windspeeds and category hurricane was it?

Cat 4 | windspeeds reaching 127mph

Katrina: what were some physical factors influencing vulnerability?

- large amounts of NO was beneath sea level - surrounded by water, mouth of mississippi -low-lying delta region - limited natural protection

Katrina: what were some human factors influencing the vulnerability?

- rely on levees to protect city - only able to withstand cat 3 - poorly maintained - high population density - 11-12 million live in coastal areas

Katrina: what were some socio-economic issues?

- 1,500 deaths - $300 billion damage - 80% under 6m of water - over a million evacuated - trade badly effected & unemployment

Katrina: what were some environmental impacts?

- 20% of wetland lost = breeding affected - 24.6 million litres of oil pumped into lake - 5,300km2 of woodland and forest destroyed

When and where was Cyclone Nargis?

May 2008, Burma

Cyclone Nargis: what were some physical factors influencing the severity?

- low-lying delta region with a large coastline - lack of vegetation/defences - weak cat.4 - lack of accessibility due to location of airport

Cyclone Nargis: what are some human factors influencing the severity of the cyclone?

- poor governance - military takeover since 1962 = prevented help from international aid organisation for weeks, expected people to recover alone - concentrated population in rural areas with high reliance on agriculture - 68% rural; 32% urban - poor, with low standard of living: phone lines/100 people = 0.9; internet users/100 people = 0.1

Cyclone Nargis: What were some short term impacts?

winds reached 165mph - collapsed buildings = death and injury 600-700mm rainfall = flooding; disease; water pollution; crops submerged storm surge = 3.5m 140,000 deaths

Cyclone Nargis: what were some long term impacts?

- $10 billion damage - 2 million homeless - 200,000 people without water, a year later - paddy fields and aquifers still contaminated with salt water - no way of making a living; food prices inflated