Climate and weather

Winds and Pressure Systems

• Wind - moving air caused by the high-pressure areas moving toward low-pressure areas
• Prevailing winds - high and low-pressure belts that have created a pattern of winds. a.k.a. “westerlies’. They move in air masses that affect our weather

Winds and Pressure Systems

• POLAR FRONT - the boundary between cold, dry polar air and warm, moist tropical air
• Jet Stream - the current of fast-moving air located high in the atmosphere above the polar front
• In the winter this boundary between cold and warm air moves southward, allowing cold arctic air to flow farther southward into the United States
• In the summer, it moves northward, allowing warm air from the Gulf of Mexico to flow farther northward in to Canada’s interior
• The warm air masses and the cold air masses that meet at the polar front do not mix easily. Instead they often enter into a battle in the sky that we see as a storm