Weather Flashcards
What are the four factors that affect weather?
Latitude, relief, aspect, distance from the sea
How does latitude affect weather?
- Places closer to the equator are usually warmer
- Places nearer to the poles are colder
How does relief affect weather?
- Places located on flat, low lying land are warmer
- Places higher up, are colder and wetter
How does aspect affect weather?
Places which are south facing are warmer, places north facing are colder
How does distance from the sea affect weather?
- Places nearer to the sea are mild and wet
- Places further from the sea are drier, but temperatures are more extreme
What is an air mass?
Is a large volume of air which travels from one area to another
Name the 5 air masses affecting the UK
What is the source and characteristics of Tropical Maritime?
- Atlantic Ocean
- Warm and Wet
What is the source and characteristics of Tropical Continental?
- Southern Europe & North Africa
- Warm and Dry
What is the source and characteristics of Polar Maritime?
- North Atlantic
- Cold and Wet
What is the source and characteristics of Polar Continental?
- Northern Europe
- Cold and Dry
What is the source and characteristics of Arctic Maritime?
- Arctic Ocean
- Very cold, not always wet due to low humidity
Identify the low pressure area on the chart
What do close together isobars denote?
Strong winds
Identify the high pressure area on the chart
Identify the cold front on the chart
Identify the warm front on the chart
What does a large line and a small line on a wind speed symbol denote?
10 knots and 5 knots
What does this symbol denote in terms of wind speed and direction?
North Eastern wind 25 knots
How much cloud coverage does this symbol indicate?
5 Oktas
What kind of weather could you expect at a cold front?
- Towering cumulonimbus clouds
- Heavy rain showers
- Drop in temperature
What kind of weather could you expect at a warm front?
- Spell of prolonged rain
- Rise in temperature
What kind of weather would you expect at an occulted front?
- Blustery winds
- Heavy squally rainshowers
- Sometimes hail and thunderstorms
What is a depression?
- An area of low pressure
- Moves from west to east in the northern hemisphere
What are the characteristics of a low pressure system on a synoptic chart?
- cold fronts
- warm fronts
- occluded fronts
- tight packed isobars
- isobars with pressure decreasing to the centre
What is an occluded front?
A warm air mass caught between two cold air masses
What are three characteristics of a depression?
- Winds blow anticlockwise
- Wet - where warm air is pushed where it cools, condenses and precipitates
- Warmer behind a warm front & colder behind a cold front
