Air mass and Fronts assiment
Vince Como Dr. Kilgore 1/2
Air masses
Air masses are a uniformed bodies of air that get there characteristics from the land they formed over. There are five types of air masses Continental, Maritime, Tropical, Polar, and Arctic. An air mass name comes from two of the four air masses like Continental-tropical air mass. There is one air mass that can only go with Continental that is an Arctic. You are probably wandering what a Continental air mass and the others air masses mean so I'll tell you. A Continental means it forms over land so it will be dry. A Maritime means it forms over water so it will be wet. A Tropical means it forms near some where warm or near the equator. A Polar means it forms somewhere cold or near the poles. A Arctic means it is very cold and very moist. The last thing I have to tell you about air masses is they don't usually form over the USA because the USA weather interrupts the air mass ability to get characteristics form the land.
Fronts
Fronts are the boundary were two air masses meet, and their name comes from the air mass wining over the fit for the land. Usually the cold fronts wins over the land, but if there is an draw between the land it is called a stationary front. If the bounders of two of the same air masses meet it is called an occluded front. You are probably wondering how these are shown on a weather map so I'll tall you. The cold front is represented on the weather map as a blue line with circles pointing were it is going and usually moves northwest to south east . A warm front is shown on the weather map as a red line with triangles pointing to were it is going and usually moves from northeast to southwest . A stationary front is shown on the weather map as a mixture of the clod and warm front symbols. A occluded front is shown on the weather map as a purple line with half circles pointing were it is going. Fronts can change the weather drastically like the temp can be in the 70's then a cold front comes in and the temp is now in the 50's. This also goes for warm fronts like the temp could be in the 50's then the warm front comes in and the temps rise to the the 70's, but when there is a stationary front the sky is cloudy and it is very windy plus the temps the temps stay high. If there is a occluded front the it is sunny but very moist or humid and depending on what type of air mass ti is will determine the weather