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Maritime tropical air masses are sometimes referred to as trade air masses. Maritime tropical air masses that affect the United States originate in the Caribbean Sea, southern Gulf of Mexico, and tropical Atlantic east of Florida through the Bahamas. [6] Monsoon air masses are moist and unstable. Superior air masses are dry, and rarely reach ...
The term "United States," when used in the geographic sense, refers to the contiguous United States (sometimes referred to as the Lower 48, including the District of Columbia not as a state), Alaska, Hawaii, the five insular territories of Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and minor outlying possessions. [1]
A similar air mass rising on the other side of the equator forces those rising air masses to move poleward. The rising air creates a low pressure zone near the equator. As the air moves poleward, it cools, becomes denser, and descends at about the 30th parallel, creating a high-pressure area. The descended air then travels toward the equator ...
Air mass classifications are indicated by three letters: [3] [4] Fronts separate air masses of different types or origins, and are located along troughs of lower pressure. [5] The first letter describes its moisture properties, with c used for c ontinental air masses (dry) and; m used for m aritime air masses (moist).
Because of contrasting air masses, the Great Plains, the Midwest, and the southern United States have frequent severe thunderstorms and tornado outbreaks during both the spring and the summer. In central portions of the U.S., tornadoes are more common than anywhere else in the world. [29] They usually can touch down during the spring and the ...
World map with the middle latitudes highlighted in red Extratropical cyclone formation areas. The middle latitudes, also called the mid-latitudes (sometimes spelled midlatitudes) or moderate latitudes, are spatial regions on either hemisphere of Earth, located between the Tropic of Cancer (latitude 23°26′09.7″) and the Arctic Circle (66°33′50.3″) in the northern hemisphere and ...
The polar front arises as a result of cold polar air meeting warm tropical air. It is a stationary front as the air masses are not moving against each other and stays stable. [ 2 ] Off the coast of eastern North America , especially in winter , there is a sharp temperature gradient between the snow-covered land and the warm offshore currents.
Such maps have been in use since the mid-19th century and are used for research and weather forecasting purposes. Maps using isotherms show temperature gradients, [2] which can help locate weather fronts. Isotach maps, analyzing lines of equal wind speed, [3] on a constant pressure surface of 300 or 250 hPa show where the jet stream is located.