ENV100Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Cool Air, Warm Front, Coriolis Force

• School: UTM
• Department: Environment
• Course: ENV100Y5
• Professor: Barbara Murck

Document Summary

Weather and climate are different: weatherspecifies atmospheric conditions over short time periods and small geographic areas, climatedescribes patterns of average atmospheric conditions across large geographic regions and long periods of time. Low-pressure zone leads to convergence at the surface; divergence aloft. High-pressure zone leads to divergence at the surface; convergence aloft. What causes wind to blow: wind = moving air, three main factors affect the movement of air: 3. coriolis force (influences the direction of movement of air) Convectionaffects air motion: warm, less dense air rises, creating vertical currents, rising air expands, cools, moisture condenses, precipitation falls, cool, dry air descends and compresses, becoming warmer (warmed again by the surface, influences both weather and climate. The coriolis force acts in an opposite sense in the two hemispheres: Wind direction is the result of a balancebetween the pressure gradient and. Around a low-pressure region winds circulate in the counter-clockwise (cyclonic) direction. Around a high-pressure region winds circulate in the clockwise (anti-cyclonic) direction.