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Chapter 7: Atmospheric Disturbances
Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcome 7.1 Define air mass and list the three characteristics of an air mass. 176
Learning Outcome 7.2 Describe the origin of air masses in terms of source regions. 176
Learning Outcome 7.3 Explain how air masses are named. 176
Learning Outcome 7.4 Identify the names and properties of the six classes of air masses. 177
Learning Outcome 7.5 Identify the source regions and associated air masses that affect North
America. 177
Learning Outcome 7.6 Define front and identify the four types of front. 178
Learning Outcome 7.7 Describe the formation of a cold front and the weather patterns that occur
as a cold front passes a location. 179
Learning Outcome 7.8 Describe the formation of a warm front and the weather patterns that
occur as a warm front passes a location. 179
Learning Outcome 7.9 Describe the formation of a stationary front and the weather patterns on
either side of a front. 179
Learning Outcome 7.10 Describe the formation of an occluded cold front and the weather
patterns that occur as an occluded front passes a location. 182
Learning Outcome 7.11 Identify the general characteristics of atmospheric disturbances. 179
Learning Outcome 7.12 Explain the characteristics of a midlatitude cyclone. 183
Learning Outcome 7.13 Identify the four kinds of movement that midlatitude cyclones undergo.
180
Learning Outcome 7.14 Explain the stages in the life cycle of a midlatitude cyclone. 183
Learning Outcome 7.15 Explain the typical weather pattern associated with the passage of a
midlatitude cyclone with the center to the north of a location. 184
Learning Outcome 7.16 Explain the typical weather pattern associated with the passage of a
midlatitude cyclone with the center to the south of a location. 184
Learning Outcome 7.17 Describe the occurrence and distribution of midlatitude cyclones. 184
171
© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
Learning Outcome 7.18 Define midlatitude anticyclone and explain the associated weather
patterns. 186
Learning Outcome 7.19 Define easterly wave and describe the associated weather characteristics.
187
Learning Outcome 7.20 Identify the three categories of tropical disturbances. 187
Learning Outcome 7.21 Explain the characteristics of a hurricane. 187
Learning Outcome 7.22 Describe the structure of a hurricane. 188
Learning Outcome 7.23 Describe the movement and lifespan of a hurricane. 188
Learning Outcome 7.24 Identify areas where hurricanes originate and their common tracks. 189
Learning Outcome 7.25 Explain hazards associated with hurricanes and the types of damage they
cause. 191
Learning Outcome 7.26 Describe the possible connections between hurricanes and climate
change. 193
Learning Outcome 7.27 Explain the three stages in the development of a thunderstorm. 194
Learning Outcome 7.28 Explain the formation of a mesocyclone. 198
Learning Outcome 7.29 Explain the formation of tornadoes. 196
Learning Outcome 7.30 Explain the ways storms can be monitored to enable informed decisions
about personal safety. 199

This chapter evaluates the creation and functioning of short-term atmospheric anomalies.
Specifically, the chapter looks at the formation of air masses and fronts. The formation of
hurricanes, thunderstorms, and tornadoes are examined.
Teaching Tip
Have students choose a prominent hurricane from recent years. Have them plot its course and
show its development. Have them identify the pressure near the eye wall, its size, and its wind
speed every 200 miles along its course. Have them identify the wind patterns driving the storm.
TOPICS
The Impact of Storms on the Landscape

Air Masses
Characteristics
172
Origin
Source Regions
Classification
Movement and Modification
North American Air Masses
Fronts
Types of Fronts
Cold Fronts
Warm Fronts
Stationary Fronts
Occluded Fronts
Air Masses, Fronts, and Major Atmospheric Disturbances
Midlatitude Disturbances
Tropical Disturbances
Localized Severe Weather
Midlatitude Cyclones
Characteristics
Formation of Fronts
Sectors
Clouds and Precipitation
Movements
Life Cycle
Cyclogenesis
Occlusion
Conveyor Belt Model of Midlatitude Cyclones
Weather Changes with the Passing of a Midlatitude Cyclone
Occurrence and Distribution
Midlatitude Anticyclones
Characteristics
Relationships of Cyclones and Anticyclones
Easterly Waves
Tropical Cyclones: Hurricanes
Categories of Tropical Disturbances
Named Storms
Characteristics
Eye of a Hurricane
Origin
Movement
Hurricane Tracks
Life Span
Damage and Destruction
Hurricane Strength
Storm Surges
Heavy Rain and Flooding
Hurricane Katrina
“Super Storm” Sandy
173
Hurricane Patricia
Hurricanes and Climate Change
Number of Hurricanes
Intensity of Hurricanes
Localized Severe Weather
Thunderstorms
Development
Downbursts
Lightning
Thunder
Tornadoes
Funnel Clouds
Tornado Formation
Strength
Waterspouts
Severe Storm Watches and Warnings
Focus: Conveyer Belt Model of Midlatitude Cyclones
Global Environmental Change: Are Tornado Patterns Changing?
Focus: Weather Radar
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. The Impact of Storms on the Landscape

A. Storms are phenomena that are more limited than the broad-scale wind and pressure
systems.
1. They are transient and temporary.
B. Storms involve the flow of air masses as well as a variety of atmospheric disturbances.
C. They have short-run and long-run impacts.
1. In some parts of the world they have major influence on weather, some on climate.
2. Long-run storms include both positive and negative impacts on a landscape.
a) Positive: promote diversity in vegetative cover, increase size of lakes and ponds,
and stimulate plant growth.
II. Air Masses

A. Air mass—a large parcel of air that has relatively uniform properties in the horizontal
dimension and moves as an entity. Such extensive bodies are distinct from one another
and compose the troposphere.
B. Characteristics
1. An air mass must meet three requirements:
a) Must be large (horizontal and vertical).
b) Horizontal dimension must have uniform properties (temperature, humidity, and
stability).
c) Must be distinct from surrounding air, and when it moves it must retain that
distinction (not be torn apart).
174
C. Origin
1. Formation occurs if air remains over a uniform land or sea surface long enough to
acquire uniform properties.
a) Source Regions—parts of Earth’s surface that are particularly suited to generate
air masses because they are:
(1) Extensive
(2) Physically uniform
(3) Associated with air that is stationary or anticyclonic
D. Classification
1. Because the source region determines the properties of air masses, it is the basis for
classifying them.
2. Use a one- or two-letter code.
3. Table 7-1 provides a simplified classification of air masses, along with the properties
associated with each.
E. Movement and Modification
1. Some air masses remain in the source region indefinitely.
2. Movement prompts structural change.
a) Thermal modification—heating or cooling from below
b) Dynamic modification—uplift, subsidence, convergence, turbulence
c) Moisture modification—addition or subtraction of moisture
3. Moving air mass modifies the weather of the region it moves through.
F. North American Air Masses
1. Physical geography of the U.S. landscape plays a critical role in air mass interactions.
a) No east–west mountains to block polar and tropical air flows, so they affect U.S.
weather/climate.
b) North–south mountain ranges in the west modify the movement, and therefore the
characteristics, of Pacific air masses.
2. Maritime tropical (mT) air from the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea/Gulf of
Mexico strongly influences the climate east of the Rockies in the United States,
southern Canada, and much of Mexico.
a) Primary source of precipitation; also brings periods of uncomfortable humid heat
in summer.
3. Continental tropical (cT) air has an insignificant influence on North America, except
for bringing occasional heat waves and drought conditions to the southern Great
Plains.
4. Equatorial (E) air affects North America only through hurricanes.
III. Fronts
A. Front—a zone of discontinuity between unlike air masses where properties of air change
rapidly.
1. Is narrow but three-dimensional.
2. Typically several kilometers wide (even tens of kilometers wide).
3. Functions as a barrier between two air masses, preventing their mingling except in
this narrow transition zone.
4. Though all primary physical properties are involved in a front, temperature provides
the most conspicuous difference.
175
5. Fronts lean, which allows air masses to be uplifted and adiabatic cooling to take
place.
a) Some lean so much, they are closer to horizontal than vertical.
(1) Always slopes so that warmer air overlies cooler air.
6. Fronts move in association with the direction of the more active air mass, which
displaces the less active.
B. Cold Fronts
1. Cold front—the leading edge of a cool air mass actively displacing a warm air mass.
a) Brings cold air.
b) Leads to the rapid lifting of warm air, which makes it unstable and thus results in
blustery and violent weather along the front.
c) Weather maps show ground-level position of a cold front (usually has a
protruding “nose”); clouds and precipitation tend to be concentrated along and
immediately behind the ground-level position.
C. Warm Fronts
1. Warm front—the leading edge of an advancing warm air mass.
a) Brings warm air.
b) Results in clouds and precipitation, usually broad, protracted, and gentle, without
much convective activity.
c) Unstable rising air can result in showery and even violent precipitation.
d) Weather maps show the ground-level position of a warm front; precipitation
usually falls ahead of this position.
D. Stationary Fronts
1. Stationary front—the common boundary between two air masses in a situation in
which neither air mass displaces the other.
E. Occluded Fronts
1. Occluded front—a complex front formed when a cold front overtakes a warm front.
F. Air Masses, Fronts, and Major Atmospheric Disturbances
G. Two types of disturbances: stormy and calm.
H. Both types have common characteristics.
1. Smaller than the components of general circulation, but extremely variable in size.
2. Migratory and transient.
3. Relatively brief in duration.
4. Produce characteristic and relatively predictable weather conditions.
5. Midlatitude Disturbances
a) Many kinds of atmospheric disturbances are associated with the midlatitudes,
which are the principal battleground for tropospheric phenomena.
b) Midlatitude cyclones and midlatitude anticyclones are more significant because of
size and prevalence.
6. Tropical Disturbances
a) Low latitudes are characterized by monotony, with the same consistent weather.
b) The only breaks in this pattern are provided by transient disturbances such as
hurricanes.
176
7. Localized Severe Weather

a) Occurs in many parts of the world.
b) Constitutes short-lived but severe weather phenomena such as thunderstorms and
tornadoes.
IV. Midlatitude Cyclones

A. Midlatitude cyclone—large migratory low-pressure system that occurs within the
middle latitudes and moves generally with the westerlies; also called lows or wave
cyclones, and depressions.
a) Probably the most significant of all atmospheric disturbances.
b) Basically responsible for most day-to-day weather changes.
c) Bring precipitation to much of the world’s populated regions.
1. Characteristics
a) A typical mature midlatitude cycle is 1600 kilometers (1000 miles) in diameter
and has an oval shape.
b) Patterns of isobars, fronts, and wind flow in the Southern Hemisphere are mirror
images of those in the Northern Hemisphere.
(1) In the Northern Hemisphere:
(a) Circulation pattern converges counterclockwise.
(b) Wind-flow pattern attracts cool air from the north and warm air from the
south and creates two fronts.
(i) These two fronts divide the cyclone into a cool sector north and west
of the center and a warm sector south and east.
(a) Size of sectors varies with location: on the ground, the cool sector
is larger, but in the atmosphere, the warm sector is more extensive.
(ii) Warm air rises along both fronts, causing cloudiness and precipitation,
which follows patterns of cold and warm fronts.
(iii)Much of the cool sector is typified by clear, cold, stable air, whereas
air of the warm sector is often moist and tends toward instability, so
the cool sector may have sporadic thunderstorms. May have squall
fronts of intense thunderstorms.
B. Weather Changes With a Passing Front
1. With the passage of a cold front, the following changes typically occur:
a) The temperature decreases sharply.
b) Winds shift from southerly ahead of the front to northwesterly following it (in the
Northern Hemisphere).
c) The pressure falls as the front approaches and then rises after it passes.
d) Generally clear skies are replaced by cloudiness and precipitation at the front.
C. Movements
1. Midlatitude cyclones move throughout their existence.
2. Average rate of movement is 30–45 kilometers per hour (20–30 miles per hour).
3. Cyclonic wind circulation of these midlatitude cyclones have winds that generally
converge counterclockwise (in the Northern Hemisphere) into the center of the storm
from all sides.
4. The cold front generally moves faster than the storm’s center.
177
D. Life Cycle
1. Cyclogenesis
a) Origin to maturity typically takes 3 to 6 days, then another 3 to 6 days to
dissipate.
b) Cyclogenesis—birth of cyclones.
c) Most common cause believed to be upper-air conditions in the vicinity of the
polar-front jet stream.
d) Most begin as waves along the polar front.
e) Cyclogenesis can also occur on the leeward side of mountains.
f) Often bring heavy rain or snowstorms to the northeastern United States and
southeastern Canada.
2. Occlusion
a) After cyclonic circulation is well developed, occlusion begins.
b) After an occluded front is fully developed, the cyclone dissipates.
3. Conveyer Belt Model of Midlatitude Cyclones
a) Model first presented by meteorologists in Norway in the 1920s.
b) Conveyer belt model offers a better explanation.
E. Weather Changes With the Passing of a Midlatitude Cyclone
1. Temperature
a) As a cold front passes, temperature drops abruptly.
2. Pressure
a) Pressure falls as the front approaches, and as the front passes the pressure rises
steadily.
3. Wind
a) Winds in the warm sector come from the south. Once the front passes, winds shift
and come from the west or northwest.
4. Clouds and Precipitation
a) As a cold front approaches, clear skies are replaced by cloudiness and
precipitation.
b) After the front passes, the conditions clear.
5. Occurrence and Distribution
a) Occur at scattered but irregular intervals throughout the zone of the westerlies.
b) Route of a cyclone is likely to be undulating and erratic, but it generally moves
west to east.
VI. Midlatitude Anticyclones

A. Midlatitude anticyclone—an extensive migratory high-pressure cell of the midlatitudes
that moves generally with the westerlies.
B. Characteristics
a) Typically larger than a midlatitude cyclone, but also moves west to east.
b) Travels at the same rate, or a little slower, than a midlatitude cyclone.
(1) Is prone to stagnate or remain over the same region (while cyclones do not).
(a) Can cause a concentration of air pollutants.
C. Relationships of Cyclones and Anticyclones
1. Cyclones and anticyclones alternate with one another in an irregular sequence.
a) Often a functional relationship between the two.
178
(1) Can visualize an anticyclone as a polar air mass with the cold front of a
cyclone as its leading edge.
VII. Easterly Waves

A. Easterly wave—a long but weak migratory low-pressure system in the tropics between
5° and 30° of latitude.
B. They are usually several hundred kilometers long and nearly always oriented north–
south.
C. They drift westward on the trade winds.
D. Convergent conditions behind the wave generate thunderstorms and cloudiness.
1. Sometimes intensify into hurricanes.
2. Bring characteristic weather of the trade winds with them.
VIII. Tropical Cyclones: Hurricanes

A. Tropical cyclone—a storm most significantly affecting the tropics and subtropics, which
is intense, revolving, rain-drenched, migratory, destructive, and erratic. Such a storm
system consists of a prominent low-pressure center that is essentially circular in shape
and has a steep pressure gradient outward from the center.
a) Tropical cyclones provide the only break in weather in low latitudes.
b) Also called:
(1) Hurricanes in North and Central America
(2) Typhoons in the western North Pacific
(3) Baguios in the Philippines
(4) Tropical cyclones in the Indian Ocean and Australia
2. With diameters of between 160 and 1000 kilometers, tropical cyclones are smaller
than midlatitude cyclones.
3. Three categories of tropical cyclones:
a) Tropical depression—winds of 33 knots (61 kilometers, or 38 miles, per hour) or less.
b) Tropical storm—winds between 34 and 63 knots (63 and 118 kilometers, or 39
and 73 miles, per hour)
c) Hurricane—winds of 64 knots (119 kilometers, or 74 miles, per hour) or more;
can double and even triple that minimum.
4. World Meteorological Society (WMO) is responsible for monitoring tropical storms
globally.
a) Several local warning centers operate regionally:
(1) National Hurricane Center (Miami, FL) monitors the North Atlantic and
northeastern Pacific.
(2) Central Pacific Hurricane Center (Hawaii) monitors the north-central Pacific.
(3) Japan Meteorological Agency (Japan) monitors the northwestern Pacific.
B. Characteristics
1. A hurricane pulls in warm, moist air for fuel, and this air rises and cools adiabatically.
a) This causes condensation and in turn releases heat, which further increases the
instability of the air.
b) Not characterized as midlatitude cyclones.
(1) Dissimilar air masses are not pulled together.
(2) All air in a hurricane is warm and moist.
179
2. Eye of a Hurricane
a) Eye—the nonstormy center of a tropical cyclone, which has a diameter of 16–40
kilometers (10–25 miles). In the eye there are no updrafts, but instead a downdraft
that inhibits cloud formation.
b) Eyewall—peripheral zone at the edge of the eye where winds reach their highest
speed and where updrafts are most prominent.
c) Weather pattern within a hurricane is symmetrical.
d) Comprised of bands of dense cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds called spiral
rain bands.
3. Eyewall replacement—the process in which a new wall of storms surrounds the wall
of storms circling the hurricane’s eye. When this occurs, the inner wall disintegrates
so the new wall replaces it. This process tends to weaken the storm.
C. Origin
1. Form only over warm oceans and where there is no significant wind shear.
2. The Coriolis effect plays key role: it’s at a minimum at the equator, and no hurricane
has been observed to form within 3° of the equator or cross over it.
a) Rare to have a hurricane closer than 8° to 10° from equator.
3. The exact mechanism of formation is not clear, but they always grow from some
preexisting disturbance.
4. Movement
a) Most common in the North Pacific basin (origination in the Philippines and west
of southern Mexico and Central America).
(1) West central portion of the North Atlantic basin, extending into the Caribbean,
and Gulf of Mexico is third in prevalence.
(2) Totally absent from the South Atlantic and from the southeastern part of the
Pacific.
(a) Absent apparently because the water is too cold and because high
pressure dominates.
b) General pattern of movement is highly predictable.
(1) About one-third travel east to west without much latitudinal change.
(2) About two-thirds start off on an east–west path and then curve poleward.
(a) Exception occurs in the southwestern Pacific Ocean north and northeast
of New Zealand, where the general circulation pattern steers hurricanes,
so they travel west to east.
(3) Average hurricane lasts a week; those that remain over tropical oceans can
live up to four weeks.
(a) Dies down over continents because energy source of warm, moist air is
cut off.
(b) Dies down in midlatitudes because of cooler environment.
(i) In midlatitudes, can diminish in intensity but grow in size and become
a midlatitude cyclone.
D. Damage and Destruction
1. High seas, or a storm surge, cause the most damage.
2. Storm size is key to how much damage is caused, then physical configuration of
landscape and population size and density of affected area.
180
3. Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale has been established to rank the intensity of

hurricanes.
a) Ranges from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most severe (Table 7-2).
4. Heavy Rain and Flooding
a) Strong hurricanes can inflict heavy damage from flooding.
(1) In 2011, Hurricane Irene brought extensive flooding to the northeastern
United States and southeastern Canada.
E. Hurricanes and Climate Change
1. The 2005 hurricane season in the North Atlantic was the most active on record.
a) Included 28 named storms.
b) Three of the most powerful hurricanes measured in terms of minimum
atmospheric pressure in the eye.
2. The 2010 and 2011 seasons tied for third overall, with 19 named storms.
3. Connection between ocean temperature and hurricane formation and connection
between global warming and ocean temperature generates question:
a) Will global warming increase hurricane activity?
4. There has been a general increase in the annual number of hurricanes in the North
Atlantic in the past 25 years.
a) Some meteorologists attribute the increase to a multidecadal cycle of hurricane
activity that has been well documented since the early 1990s (the Multi-Decadal
Signal).
(1) Combination of high sea-surface temperatures (SSTs), low wind shear, and
expanded upper-level westward flow of the atmosphere off North Africa.
b) Underlying components of the Multi-Decadal Signal are not completely
understood, but the recent increase in hurricane frequency can likely be explained
without tying it to global warming.
c) However, hurricane intensity may be tied to global warming.
(1) Reflected in the potential relationship between higher SSTs and hurricane
intensity.
d) The 2013–2014 Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change concluded that it was virtually certain (99–100 percent
probability) that we will observe an increase in tropical cyclones during the
century as a result of increasing global temperatures.
IX. Localized Severe Weather

A. Occur on a more localized scale than do tropical and midlatitude cyclones and
anticyclones.
B. Thunderstorms
1. Thunderstorm—violent convective storm accompanied by thunder and lightning,
usually localized and short lived.
a) Vertical air motion, considerable humidity, and instability combine to create
towering cumulonimbus clouds, so thunderstorms are always associated with this
combination.
b) Frequently occur in conjunction with other kinds of storms.
(1) For example, hurricanes, tornadoes, fronts (especially cold fronts), midlatitude
cyclones, and orographic lifting.
181
c) Associated with other mechanisms that can trigger unstable uplift.

(1) Mechanism triggers uplift of warm, moist air.
(2) Cumulus stage—updrafts prevail and clouds grow. Rise to above freezing
level, where supercooled water droplets and ice crystals coalesce, then fall.
Initiate a downdraft.
(3) Mature state—updrafts and downdrafts coexist as the cloud continues to
enlarge (but precipitation is leaving the bottom of the cloud). Most active
time.
(4) Dissipating state—downdrafts dominate and turbulence ceases.
d) Virtually unknown poleward of 60˚ of latitude.
C. Lightning
1. More than 8.5 million lightning bolts occur daily worldwide.
2. Most frequently, lightning occurs as exchanges between adjacent clouds or between
the upper and lower portions of the same cloud; it also occurs as an electrical
connection of ionized air from cloud to ground.
3. The sequence that leads to lightning discharge is known, but the mechanism for
electrification is not.
a) Sequence:
(1) Large cumulonimbus cloud experiences a separation of electrical charges.
(2) Positively charged particles are mostly high in the cloud, while negatively
charged particles tend to concentrate at the base.
(3) Growing negative charge in the base attracts a growing positive charge on
Earth’s surface immediately below the cloud.
(4) An insulating barrier lies between the cloud base and surface.
(a) Contrast between the cloud base and surface builds to tens of millions of
volts and overcomes the insulating barrier.
(b) A finger of negative current flicks down from the cloud and meets a
positive charge darting upward from the ground, causing lightning.
4. Cause is unknown; different hypotheses.
a) Most popular hypothesis: updrafts carry positively charged particles to the top,
while falling ice pellets gather negative charges and transport them downward.
5. Thunder—an instantaneous expansion of air caused by the abrupt heating that a
lightning bolt produces. This expansion creates a shock wave that becomes a sound
wave.
a) Can time the distance that lightning is away because of the different rates thunder
and lightning travel at (speed of sound vs. speed of light).
(1) Five-second interval equals about a mile; three-second interval equals about a
kilometer.
D. Tornadoes
1. Tornado—a localized cyclonic low-pressure cell surrounded by a whirling cylinder
of wind spinning so violently that a partial vacuum develops within the funnel.
a) Has the most extreme pressure gradients known (as much as a 100-millibar
difference between the tornado center and the air immediately outside the funnel).
(1) Extreme pressure difference produces winds of extraordinary speed.
(a) How fast are winds?
182
(i) No one knows because tornadoes blow to bits anemometers

(instrument for measuring speed). Maximum estimates range from 320
to 800 kilometers (200 to 500 miles) per hour.
(b) Greatest damage tends to be from a combination of strong winds, flying
debris, and extreme updrafts.
(i) Old advice of opening windows during tornado event is no longer
recommended because it may increase chance of injury from flying
debris.
2. Tornado Formation
a) Exact mechanism of formation is unknown.
(1) Usually develops in warm, moist, unstable air associated with midlatitude
cyclones.
(2) High wind shear (horizontally rotating air) may cause strong updrafts to form
in a supercell thunderstorm.
(a) The rotating air may then be tilted vertically, forming a mesocyclone.
(i) About 50 percent of all mesocyclones formed result in tornadoes.
(3) Most often develops along a squall line that precedes a rapidly advancing cold
front, or along the cold front.
(4) Spring and early summer are favorable for development because there’s
considerable air-mass contrast present in the midlatitudes at that time.
(5) Most occur in midafternoon, at time of maximum heating.
(6) More than 90 percent of all reported tornadoes occur in the United States.
(a) Reflects optimum environmental conditions.
(i) Relatively flat terrain of the central and southeastern United States
provides uninhibited interaction of Canadian cP and Gulf mT air
masses.
3. Strength
a) The strength of a tornado is described using the Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF)
(Table 7-3).
(1) Scale is based on estimates of 3-second gust wind speeds.
(2) Percentage of U.S. tornadoes that fall within the five categories are:
(a) EF 0–1 (light or moderate): 69 percent
(b) EF 2–3 (strong or severe): 29 percent
(c) EF 4–5 (devastating or incredible): 2 percent
(3) Annual U.S. tornado death toll has decreased because of better forecasting.
(4) Waterspouts occur over ocean; have less pressure gradient, gentler winds, and
reduced destructive capability.
4. Severe Storm Watches and Warnings
a) Storm watch is an advisory issued for a region where, over the next 4 to 6 hours,
the conditions are favorable for the development of severe weather.
b) Storm warning is issued by a local weather forecasting office when a severe
thunderstorm or tornado has actually been observed.
183
X. Focus: Conveyer Belt Model of Midlatitude Cyclones

A. Satellite and weather balloon measurements have revealed that midlatitude cyclones
involve more than just surface fronts and a low-pressure center; they also tend to include
several well-defined channels of air called “conveyor belts” (Figure 7-A).
B. The Warm Conveyor Belt
1. The midlatitude cyclone’s surface low draws air northward from the southeastern
portion of the cyclone. The air to the southeast tends to be warm and moist because
those are characteristics of the air mass where it originates.
2. A warm conveyor belt develops from this air, which starts at the surface, but because
it is less dense, it eventually rises up and over the cooler air to the north of the warm
front.
3. This can bring moisture and even snow as it contributes moisture to the cold conveyor
belt.
C. The Cold Conveyor Belt
1. Just north of the warm front, cooler, drier surface air moves westward toward the
cyclone’s central low, forming the cold conveyor belt.
2. Like the warm conveyor belt, some of this cold air can rise to merge with the general
westerly flow at upper levels.
a) However, the cold conveyor belt can also split, with the rest of the air turning
cyclonically and rising as it moves toward the low-pressure center.
b) In winter, this often produces the midlatitude cyclone’s heaviest snowfall just
northwest of the low.
D. The Dry Conveyor Belt
1. On the western side of a typical midlatitude cyclone, convergence in the upper
troposphere produces descending air, some of which swirls counterclockwise into the
cyclone’s low, forming the dry conveyor belt.
2. This air from the upper troposphere is much drier than the air in the other conveyor
belts because it is farther from the surface and thus farther from sources of moisture.
3. Few clouds, if any, can form in this dry air, which often produces a “dry slot” of air
just behind the cold front that is lacking in clouds compared with other areas nearby.
a) The dry conveyor belt gives the cyclone a “comma” shape by separating clouds
defining the comma’s head, formed primarily by the cold conveyor belt, from
clouds defining the comma’s tail, formed primarily by the warm conveyor belt.
XI. Global Environmental Change: Are Tornado Patterns Changing?

A. The most active part of 2011 was from April 25 to April 28.
1. Produced 343 confirmed tornadoes and killed 321 people.
2. Four of these tornadoes produced damage up to the EF-5 category—the first EF-5
tornadoes anywhere on Earth since 2008.
B. Post-storm damage surveys are the main evidence of tornadoes and their strengths,
though storm spotters and the public provide information as well.
1. Doppler weather radar alone does not confirm tornadoes, but the U.S. Doppler
network, installed in the 1990s, and advances since that deployment have improved
warnings and detection.
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2. The number of recorded tornadoes has increased, but to see whether the actual
number of tornadoes has increased, researchers tend to analyze trends in larger
tornadoes.
3. The overall number of large tornadoes hasn’t changed significantly, but outbreaks
such as the one in 2011 are becoming more common.
a) Outbreaks don’t happen every year, but when they do, they’re deadly—by the end
of 2011 tornadoes had killed 551 people in the United States, the largest annual
total in 66 years of modern records.
C. Thunderstorms tend to be more frequent and powerful when the surface is hot and humid.
1. Global climate change is simultaneously increasing surface temperatures, increasing
evaporation rates, and decreasing the number of days with adequate wind shear for
tornadic formation.
2. Observed changes, which also fit global climate changes, in tornado patterns are
fewer days with tornadoes but on days when there is enough wind shear, increased
tendency for outbreaks.
XII. Focus: Weather Radar

A. NEXRAD (next-generation radar)
1. NEXRAD uses the Doppler effect to determine the severity of a storm.
a) Doppler effect—an apparent change in sound and electromagnetic waves that
occurs because a source is moving; the apparent change depends on whether the
source is approaching or receding.
(1) NEXRAD transmits microwaves through the atmosphere and then measures
how much of this transmitted signal is reflected to give an estimate of the
storm’s intensity.
b) More precise than radar.
2. NEXRAD underwent hardware and software upgrades to incorporate dual
polarization.
a) This simultaneously emits pulses of horizontally oriented and vertically oriented
microwaves that are reflected in a manner analogous to the radar pulses.
b) Based on the reflected microwave data, the software identifies the forms of
precipitation present and the precipitation rate.
c) An important use of NEXRAD is in detecting tornadoes.
d) Tornado funnels are usually only a few hundred meters across, and it is rare that
NEXRAD can detect them using reflectivity alone.
e) NEXRAD can detect motion to within 0.9 meters per second (2 miles per hour).
McKnight and Hess 12e Chapter 7 Learning Checks
Learning Check 7-1
How do air masses form? Why do air masses rarely originate in the midlatitudes?
The formation of air masses occurs if air remains over a uniform land or sea surface long enough
to acquire uniform properties. Air masses form in distinctive source regions. These regions are
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parts of Earth’s surface that are particularly suited to generate air masses because they are
extensive, physically uniform, and are associated with air that is stationary or anticyclonic.
In the band of the westerlies (the midlatitudes), the atmosphere is rarely quiet long enough for an
air mass to form.
Learning Check 7-2
What are the temperature and moisture characteristics of a maritime polar (mP) air mass? A
continental tropical (cT) air mass? Explain.
Maritime polar air masses are moist and cold because they originate over bodies of water at high
latitudes.
Continental tropic air masses are hot and dry, and originate over northern Mexico and the
southwestern United States.
Learning Check 7-3
Compare the characteristics of cold fronts and warm fronts.
The primary difference between a warm front and a cold front is the temperature of the air they
bring: warm fronts bring warm air, whereas cold fronts bring cold air. The average cold front is
twice as steep as the average warm front. Cold fronts normally move faster than warm fronts.
This combination of steeper slope and faster advance in cold fronts leads to a rapid lifting of any
warm air in front of a cold front. As such, cold fronts result in blustery and violent weather,
compared with the more gentle precipitation commonly associated with warm fronts (they have a
very gradual frontal uplift of warm air, so clouds form slowly without much turbulence). But
while precipitation with a cold front is usually of a higher intensity than that with a warm front, it
is also of a shorter duration than the precipitation in a warm front. Finally, precipitation usually
falls ahead of the ground-level position of the warm front, whereas it tends to concentrate along
and immediately behind the cold front’s ground-level position.
Learning Check 7-4
What causes fronts to develop within a midlatitude cyclone?
A typical mature midlatitude cycle is 1600 kilometers (1000 miles) in diameter and has an oval
shape.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the circulation pattern converges counterclockwise; the wind-flow
pattern attracts cool air from the north and warm air from the south, which creates two fronts.
These two fronts divide the cyclone into a cool sector north and west of center and a warm sector
south and east. The size of sectors varies with location: on the ground, the cool sector is larger,
but in the atmosphere, the warm sector is more extensive. Warm air rises along both fronts,
causing cloudiness and precipitation, which follows patterns of cold and warm fronts. Much of
the cool sector is typified by clear, cold, stable air, whereas air of the warm sector is often moist
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and tends toward instability, so may have sporadic thunderstorms and may have squall fronts of
intense thunderstorms.
Patterns of isobars, fronts, and wind flow in the Southern Hemisphere are mirror images of those
in the Northern Hemisphere.
Learning Check 7-5
Explain where and why precipitation develops within a midlatitude cyclone.
See Learning Check question 7-4.
Learning Check 7-6
Describe the process that forms an occluded front.
Because cold fronts are denser, they travel at a higher velocity than warm fronts. Occlusion is the
process where a cold front overtakes a warm front and then displaces the warm air sector
between them. Nearly all midlatitude cyclones experience occlusion.
Learning Check 7-7
Why is pressure falling as a cold front approaches, and rising as a cold front moves away?
As a cold front approaches, the cold, dense air of the cold front displaces the relatively warm,
moist air of the warm-air sector. This causes the portion of the warm-air sector adjacent to the
cold front to be lifted, creating lower atmospheric pressure. As the cold front passes, cold dense
air dominates, causing the barometric pressure to rise again.
Learning Check 7-8
Why are midlatitude anticyclones associated with dry weather?
High atmospheric pressure predominates with midlatitude anticyclones. The overall weather
associated with a midlatitude cyclone is clear and dry, with little or no opportunity for cloud
formation because there is no rising air in a midlatitude cyclone and no adiabatic cooling.
Learning Check 7-9
Describe the characteristics of an easterly wave.
An easterly wave is a long but weak migratory low-pressure system in the tropics between 5°
and 30° of latitude. They are usually several hundred kilometers long and nearly always oriented
north–south, and they tend to drift westward on the trade winds. Convergent conditions behind
the wave generate thunderstorms and cloudiness. These easterly waves sometimes intensify into
hurricanes. They also tend to bring characteristic weather of the trade winds with them.
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Learning Check 7-10
Why is warm, moist air the “fuel” for a hurricane?
Hurricanes form only over warm oceans in the tropics. The ocean water temperature generally
needs to be at least 26.5°C to a depth of 50 meters. There also cannot be any significant wind
shear. The Coriolis effect plays a key role: it’s at a minimum at the equator, and no hurricane has
been observed to form within 3° of the equator or cross over it. It is rare to have a hurricane
closer than 8° to 10° from the equator. The exact mechanism of formation is not clear, but they
always grow from some preexisting disturbance.
Learning Check 7-11
Why can hurricanes move up into the midlatitudes along the East Coast of North America, but
not along the West Coast?
Hurricanes sometimes survive (with diminished intensity) off the east coast of continents in the
midlatitudes because the warm ocean currents there contribute energy to the cyclones; hurricanes
do not survive in the midlatitudes off the west coasts of continents because of the cool ocean
currents there.
Learning Check 7-12
What causes a hurricane’s storm surge?
A storm surge is a surge of wind-driven water caused by a hurricane. It is as much as 8 meters

(25 feet) above normal tidal level. These surges occur when a hurricane pounds into a shoreline.
These surges are also accentuated by the reduced atmospheric pressure of the hurricane.
Learning Check 7-13
Describe the sequence of development and dissipation of a typical thunderstorm.
A thunderstorm is a violent convective storm accompanied by thunder and lightning; it is usually

localized and short lived. Vertical air motion, considerable humidity, and instability combine to
create towering cumulonimbus clouds, so thunderstorms are always associated with this
combination.
Thunderstorms are associated with other mechanisms that can trigger unstable uplift. The
mechanism triggers uplift of warm, moist air.
During the cumulus stage, updrafts prevail and clouds grow. The clouds rise to above freezing
level, where supercooled water droplets and ice crystals coalesce, then fall. This then initiates a
downdraft.
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During the mature state, updrafts and downdrafts coexist as the cloud continues to enlarge (but
precipitation is leaving the bottom of the cloud). This is the most active time.
During the dissipating state, downdrafts dominate and turbulence ceases.
Learning Check 7-14
Explain the sequence of formation of a typical tornado associated with a mesocyclone.
The exact mechanism of formation is unknown. They usually develop in the warm, moist,
unstable air associated with a midlatitude cyclone. High wind shear (horizontally rotating air)
may cause strong updrafts to form in a supercell thunderstorm. The rotating air may then be
tilted vertically, forming a mesocyclone. About 50 percent of all mesocyclones result in
tornadoes. These most often develop along a squall line that preceded a rapidly advancing cold
front, or along the cold front. Spring and early summer are favorable for development because
there’s considerable air-mass contrast present in the midlatitudes at that time. Likewise, most
occur in midafternoon, at the time of maximum heating. There is also a region bias in that more
than 90 percent of all reported tornadoes occur in the United States. The regionality of this
phenomenon is a result of optimum environmental conditions: The relatively flat terrain of
central and southeastern United States provides uninhibited interaction of Canadian cP and Gulf
mT air masses.
Chapter 7 Learning Review
Key Terms and Concepts
Air Masses (p. 176)
1. What is an air mass, and what conditions are necessary for one to form?
The formation of air masses occurs if air remains over a uniform land or sea surface long enough
to acquire uniform properties. Air masses form in distinctive source regions. These regions are
parts of Earth’s surface that are particularly suited to generate air masses because they are
extensive, physically uniform, and are associated with air that is stationary or anticyclonic.
2. What regions of Earth are least likely to produce air masses? Why?
Mountainous areas, areas that vary in altitude and/or covering, and areas where air above moves
or is cyclonic are least likely to produce air masses. To develop, air masses need an extensive
uniform land or sea surface that allows air to stagnate and develop homogeneous physical
characteristics. Ideal source regions are ocean surfaces and extensive flat land areas that have a
uniform covering of snow, forest, or desert.
3. Contrast and explain the moisture and temperature characteristics of a mT (maritime tropical)
air mass with that of a cP (continental polar) air mass.
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Maritime tropical air masses are warm and moist because they originate within tropical latitudes
and over bodies of water. Continental polar air masses are cold and dry because they originate
over high-latitude landmasses.
Fronts (p. 178)
4. What is the relationship of air masses to a front?
When unlike air masses meet, they do not mix readily; instead, a boundary zone (i.e., a front)
develops between them.
5. What is a cold front? What is a warm front?
The primary difference between a warm front and a cold front is the temperature of the air they
bring: warm fronts bring warm air, whereas cold fronts bring cold air. The average cold front is
twice as steep as the average warm front. Cold fronts normally move faster than warm fronts.
This combination of steeper slope and faster advance in cold fronts leads to a rapid lifting of any
warm air in front of a cold front. As such, cold fronts result in blustery and violent weather,
compared with the more gentle precipitation commonly associated with warm fronts (they have a
very gradual frontal uplift of warm air, so clouds form slowly, without much turbulence). But
while precipitation with a cold front is usually of a higher intensity than that of a warm front, it is
also of a shorter duration than the precipitation in a warm front. Finally, precipitation usually
falls ahead of the ground-level position of the warm front, whereas it tends to concentrate along
and immediately behind the cold front’s ground-level position.
6. What is a stationary front?
A stationary front is a common boundary that develops when two air masses meet but neither
displaces the other.
Midlatitude Cyclones (p. 180)
7. Describe the pressure and wind patterns of a midlatitude cyclone.
A typical mature midlatitude cycle is 1600 kilometers (1000 miles) in diameter and has an oval
shape.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the circulation pattern converges counterclockwise; the wind-flow
pattern attracts cool air from the north and warm air from the south, which creates two fronts.
These two fronts divide the cyclone into a cool sector north and west of center and a warm sector
south and east. The size of sectors varies with location: on the ground, the cool sector is larger,
but in the atmosphere, the warm sector is more extensive. Warm air rises along both fronts,
causing cloudiness and precipitation, which follows patterns of cold and warm fronts. Much of
the cool sector is typified by clear, cold, stable air, whereas air of the warm sector is often moist
and tends toward instability, so may have sporadic thunderstorms and may have squall fronts of
intense thunderstorms.
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8. Describe the locations of fronts and the surface “sectors” of a mature midlatitude cyclone.
See question 7.
9. Describe and explain the regions of cloud development and precipitation within a midlatitude
cyclone.
See question 7.
10. Discuss the four components of movement of a midlatitude cyclone.
Four kinds of movements are involved:

1) Whole system traverses from west to east as a major disturbance in the westerlies.
Rate averages 32 to 48 kilometers (20 to 30 miles) per hour, although it moves faster
in winter than in summer.
2) Whole system has a cyclonic wind circulation, with direction dependent on the
hemisphere.
3) The cold front normally moves faster than the storm, so it moves into and displaces
the warm fronts.
4) The warm front usually advances more slowly than the storm.
11. Explain the process of occlusion.
Occlusion is the process where a cold front overtakes a warm front and then displaces the warm
air sector between them.
12. Why does an occluded front usually indicate the “death” of a midlatitude cyclone?
Occluded fronts are caused by the more rapid movement of cold fronts compared with warm
fronts in a midlatitude cyclone. Since the typical pattern in a midlatitude cyclone is a cold front
preceded by a warm front, the cold front eventually overtakes the warm front and effectively zips
up the midlatitude cyclone. Once occlusion in a midlatitude cyclone begins, the warm air
separating the cold and warm fronts begins to become pinched away from the surface region of
the midlatitude cyclone and forced aloft. This creates a temperature inversion situation, where a
layer of warmer air overlies a layer of cold air. This temperature inversion impedes atmospheric
uplift and generates atmospheric stability. This then leads to the dissipation of the midlatitude
cyclone.
13. Discuss the cyclogenesis of midlatitude cyclones. What is the relationship between upper-
level airflow and the formation of surface disturbances in the midlatitudes?
There seems to be a close relationship between upper-level airflow and ground-level

disturbances. When winds aloft meander north to south, in a motion called meridional airflow,
cyclonic activity at the ground level is intensified. With this meridional airflow, large waves of
alternating-pressure troughs and ridges are formed, which contribute to the surface disturbances.
This does not usually occur with west–east upper airflow. For a cyclone to develop at ground
level, there must be both a convergence of air near the ground and a divergence in the air that’s
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aloft. The divergence can be caused by changes in the speed or direction of wind flow, but it
usually involves north-to-south meanders in the Rossby waves and the jet stream.
14. Describe and explain the changes in wind direction, atmospheric pressure, sky conditions
(such as clouds and precipitation), and temperature with the passing of a cold front of a
midlatitude cyclone.
As a cold front approaches, large, vertically developed clouds (cumulonimbus) appear in the
direction the front is originating. As the surface portion of the front passes, there are vigorous
downpours and thunderstorms from cumulonimbus clouds. Because of higher pressure behind
the front and the steepness of the front, the precipitation is usually of a short but intense duration.
Clouds behind the front, if any, tend to be limited in vertical thickness and usually do not
produce precipitation.
As the surface portion of the cold front passes, there is a temperature drop. This is because the air
behind the cold front originated as a continental polar air mass.
As the front approaches and passes, barometric pressure rapidly rises, indicating that clearing
conditions should occur within 12 to 24 hours.
Midlatitude Anticyclones (p. 186)
15. Describe the pressure pattern, wind direction, and general weather associated with a
midlatitude anticyclone.
High atmospheric pressure predominates with midlatitude anticyclones. The weather associated
with a midlatitude cyclone is clear and dry, with little or no opportunity for cloud formation. At
the center, wind movement is very limited, but it increases progressively outward, so that at the
margins, and particularly the eastern margin, there may be strong winds. Winter anticyclones
have very low temperatures.
16. How are midlatitude anticyclones often associated with midlatitude cyclones?
Midlatitude cyclones and anticyclones alternate with one another in an irregular sequence. There
is often a functional relationship between the two. This can be visualized with an anticyclone
being a polar air mass with the cold front of cyclone as its leading edge.
Easterly Waves (p. 187)
17. What is an easterly wave?
An easterly wave is a long but weak migratory low-pressure system in the tropics between 5°
and 30° of latitude. They are usually several hundred kilometers long and nearly always oriented
north–south, and they tend to drift westward on the trade winds. Convergent conditions behind
the wave generate thunderstorms and cloudiness. These easterly waves sometimes intensify into
hurricanes. They also tend to bring characteristic weather of the trade winds with them.
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Tropical Cyclones: Hurricanes (p. 187)
18. Distinguish among a tropical depression, a tropical storm, and a hurricane.
A tropical depression has wind speeds less than 33 knots but develops a closed wind circulation
pattern.
A tropical storm has wind speeds between 34 and 63 knots.
A hurricane has winds greater than 64 knots.
19. Describe and explain the pressure and wind patterns of a tropical cyclone (hurricane).
Hurricanes are enormous cyclones that possess prominent low-pressure centers that are
essentially circular, with a steep pressure gradient outward from the center. As a result, strong
winds spiral inward and ascend in rapid updrafts. Near the hurricane’s center there is also a
downdraft that inhibits cloud formation (the hurricane’s eye). The weather pattern within the
hurricane is symmetrical around the eye, with winds and bands of dense cumulus and
cumulonimbus clouds spiraling inward from the edge of the storm to the eye. These clouds
produce heavy rains that generally increase in intensity, until within the eye, where there is no
rain and no low clouds; in the eye, scattered high clouds may part to let in intermittent sunlight.
20. Discuss the characteristics of the eye of a hurricane.
The eye of a hurricane is the nonstormy center of a tropical cyclone, which has a diameter of 16
to 40 kilometers (10 to 25 miles). In the eye, there are no updrafts, but instead a downdraft that
inhibits cloud formation. The eye wall is a peripheral zone at the edge of the eye where winds
reach their highest speed and where updrafts are most prominent.
21. What is wind shear?
Wind shear refers to the significant change in wind direction or wind speed with increasing
elevation.
22. Discuss the conditions necessary for a hurricane to form.
Hurricanes form only over warm oceans and where there is no significant wind shear. The
Coriolis effect plays a key role: it’s at a minimum at the equator, and no hurricane has been
observed to form within 3° of the equator or cross over it. It is rare to have a hurricane closer
than 8° to 10° from the equator. The exact mechanism of formation is not clear, but they always
grow from some preexisting disturbance.
23. Describe and explain the typical paths taken by hurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean basin.
Once formed, hurricanes follow irregular tracks with the general flow of the trade winds. The
general pattern of hurricane movement is highly predictable. About one-third travel east to west
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without much latitudinal change. About two-thirds start off on an east–west path and then curve
poleward. Here they either dissipate over the adjacent continent or become enmeshed in the
general flow of the midlatitude westerlies.
24. Why do hurricanes weaken when they move over land?
The average hurricane lasts a week; however, those that remain over tropical oceans can live up
to 4 weeks. Hurricanes die down over continents because the energy source of warm, moist air is
cut off. Hurricanes likewise die down in midlatitudes because of the cooler environment.
25. Briefly explain the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale.
The Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale ranks the relative intensity of hurricanes based on eye
pressure, wind speed, and storm-surge height. The scale ranges from 1 to 5, with 5 being the
most severe.
26. What is a hurricane storm surge, and what causes one?
A storm surge is a surge of wind-driven water caused by a hurricane. It is as much as 8 meters

(25 feet) above the normal tidal level. These surges occur when a hurricane pounds into a
shoreline. These surges are also accentuated by the reduced atmospheric pressure of the
hurricane.
27. Do hurricanes have any beneficial effects? Explain.
Several regions depend on hurricanes for much of their water supply: northwestern Mexico,
northern Australia, and southeastern Asia. Even in other areas, hurricane-induced rainfall is often
a critical source of moisture for agriculture: though a hurricane’s winds and flooding may
destroy crops within its immediate path, the hurricane’s rains nurture a much more extensive
area.
Localized Severe Weather (p. 194)
28. Discuss the general sequence of thunderstorm development and dissipation.
A thunderstorm is a violent convective storm accompanied by thunder and lightning; it is usually

localized and short lived. Vertical air motion, considerable humidity, and instability combine to
create towering cumulonimbus clouds, so thunderstorms are always associated with this
combination.
Thunderstorms are associated with other mechanisms that can trigger unstable uplift. The
mechanism triggers the uplift of warm, moist air.
During the cumulus stage, updrafts prevail and clouds grow. The clouds rise to above freezing
level, where supercooled water droplets and ice crystals coalesce, then fall. This then initiates a
downdraft.
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During the mature state, updrafts and downdrafts coexist as the cloud continues to enlarge (but
precipitation is leaving the bottom of the cloud). This is the most active time.
During the dissipating state, downdrafts dominate and turbulence ceases.
29. What is the relationship of thunder to lightning?
The abrupt heating of the localized atmosphere from a lightning bolt causes an instantaneous
expansion of the air, which causes a shock wave that we hear as thunder.
30. Describe the wind and pressure characteristics of a tornado.
A tornado is a localized cyclonic low-pressure cell surrounded by a whirling cylinder of wind

spinning so violently that a partial vacuum develops within the funnel. A tornado has the most
extreme pressure gradients known (as much as a 100-millibar difference between the tornado
center and the air immediately outside the funnel). The extreme pressure difference produces
winds of extraordinary speed. No one knows how fast the winds in a tornado are because
tornadoes blow to bits anemometers (instrument for measuring speed). Maximum estimates
range from 320 to 800 kilometers (200 to 500 miles) per hour.
31. What is a funnel cloud?
The rotating vortex of a tornado becomes visible when upswept water vapor condenses. This
phenomena is referred to as a funnel cloud.
32. Discuss the general formation of a tornado from a supercell thunderstorm and mesocyclone.
The exact mechanism of formation is unknown. They usually develop in the warm, moist,
unstable air associated with a midlatitude cyclone. High wind shear (horizontally rotating air)
may cause strong updrafts to form in a supercell thunderstorm. The rotating air may then be
tilted vertically, forming a mesocyclone. About 50 percent of all mesocyclones result in
tornadoes. These most often develop along a squall line that preceded a rapidly advancing cold
front, or along the cold front. Spring and early summer are favorable for development because
there’s considerable air-mass contrast present in the midlatitudes at that time. Likewise, most
occur in midafternoon, at the time of maximum heating. There is also a region bias in that more
than 90 percent of all reported tornadoes occur in the United States. The regionality of this
phenomenon is a result of optimum environmental conditions: The relatively flat terrain of
central and southeastern United States provides uninhibited interaction of Canadian cP and Gulf
mT air masses.
33. Briefly explain the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale for tornadoes.
This scale is used to describe the strength of a tornado. The EF scale is based on estimates of 3-
second gust wind speeds as determined by observed damage after a tornado. See Table 7-4 for
the full characteristics of the scale.
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34. What is the difference between a tornado and a waterspout?
True tornados form over land, whereas waterspouts form over water. Waterspouts likewise have
a lesser pressure gradient, gentler winds, and a reduced destructive capability compared with
tornados.
35. What is the difference between a storm watch and a storm warning?
Storm watch is an advisory issued for a region where over the next 4 to 6 hours the conditions
are favorable for the development of severe weather.
Storm warning is issued by a local weather forecasting office when a severe thunderstorm or
tornado has actually been observed.
Study Questions
1. Why is an air mass unlikely to form over the Rocky Mountains of North America?
Mountainous areas, areas that vary in altitude and/or covering, and areas where air above moves
or is cyclonic are least likely to produce air masses. To develop, air masses need an extensive
uniform land or sea surface that allows air to stagnate and develop homogeneous physical
characteristics. Ideal source regions are ocean surfaces and extensive flat land areas that have a
uniform covering of snow, forest, or desert.
2. Why are maritime polar (mP) air masses from the Atlantic Ocean less important to the United
States than mP air masses from the Pacific Ocean?
Air masses that develop over the North Atlantic rarely affect North America because the
prevailing circulation is westerly, that is, blowing east (away from the United States). The
exception is occasional incursions into the mid-Atlantic coast region. By contrast, mP air masses
from the Pacific Ocean affect U.S. weather, with their impact depending on the season. They
normally bring widespread cloudiness and heavy precipitation to the mountainous coastal
regions; by the time they reach the continent’s interior, they provide moderate temperatures and
clear skies. In summer, they produce fog and low stratus clouds along the coast but take no
distinctive weather conditions to the interior.
3. Explain why clouds develop along cold fronts and warm fronts.
Both cold fronts and warm fronts serve as atmospheric lifting mechanisms. As these fronts
advance, air is uplifted, and it cools adiabatically and eventually condenses. See question 5 for
the process.
4. Why do midlatitude cyclones develop in the midlatitudes but not in the tropics?
Midlatitude cyclones occur in equal numbers in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres,
throughout the zone of the westerlies. Their occurrence and distribution are affected by the
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seasons, so they are more numerous, better developed, and faster moving in each hemisphere’s
winter. Because the tropics are a latitudinal region possessing no seasonality, midlatitude
cyclones do not develop there.
5. Why are there no fronts in a midlatitude anticyclone?
Fronts are the result of unlike air masses meeting. In a midlatitude anticyclone, no such air-mass
conflicts or convergences are involved. Instead, a midlatitude anticyclone is like any other high-
pressure center, in which air converges into it from above, subsides, and then diverges at the
surface. Fronts in the region of a midlatitude anticyclone are technically outside the system.
6. Why are there no fronts in a hurricane?
There are no fronts in a tropical cyclone because it is fairly homogenous in temperature. Being
made up of warm, moist tropical air that is condensed into a tight spiral, there is little
temperature contrast within it for it to possess distinct fronts.
7. Why are tropical cyclones common along the east coasts of continents in the midlatitudes but
not along the west coasts?
Hurricanes sometimes survive (with diminished intensity) off the east coast of continents in the
midlatitudes because the warm ocean currents there contribute energy to the cyclones; hurricanes
do not survive in the midlatitudes off the west coasts of continents because of the cool ocean
currents there.
8. Why is it very unlikely that a hurricane could cross the equator?
Hurricanes follow the path of the trade winds, which do not cross the equator, then bend
poleward influenced by westerlies.
9. Why are thunderstorms more common over land than over water?
Thunderstorms occur much more frequently over land than water because summer temperatures
are higher over land; most thunderstorms occur in the summer.
10. Why are thunderstorms sometimes called “convective storms”?
Most thunderstorms are caused by localized convective heating; therefore, they are sometimes
referred to as convective storms.
Exercises
1. If you see a flash of lightning and you hear thunder 20 seconds later, how far away are you
from the lightning in the thunderstorm? _____ miles
5-second delay = 1 mile, so 20 seconds would equal approximately 4 miles.
197
2. You see a flash of lightning, and you hear thunder 20 seconds later. Four minutes after the
first flash of lightning, you see another flash from the same storm, but the thunder arrives in only
15 seconds. How fast is the thunderstorm moving toward you? _____ miles per hour
20-second delay = 4 miles distant
15-second delay = 3 miles distant
1 mile in 4 minutes = 15 miles per hour
3. Look at the map of thunderstorm activity in the United States (Figure 7-28). Explain why the
west coast of California has so little thunderstorm activity while Florida has so much.
Thunderstorms are caused by moist unstable air. In Florida and along the Gulf Coast, moist
unstable air prevails in the spring and summer; whereas along the Pacific coast, cool water and
subsidence from the subtropical high lead to stable conditions.
Answers to Seeing Geographically Questions (p. 174)
Questions:
This springtime tornado near Campo, Colorado, produced winds of 210 kilometers per hour (130
miles per hour). Describe the general topography of this region. Do the storm clouds appear to be
uniformly thick everywhere in the sky? How does the appearance of the tornado vary from the
base of the clouds to the ground?
Answers:
The area in which this tornado formed is flat with low-lying vegetation minimizing friction. The
tornado funnel narrows near the ground surface. Closer to the ground surface, debris and dust fill
the area surrounding the funnel, with the greatest concentration of debris nearest the ground
surface. The funnel appears darker toward the bottom, indicating higher density.
Answers to Seeing Geographically Questions (p. 203)
Questions:
Look again at the photograph of the tornado at the beginning of the chapter (p. 174). How might
the topography of this region influence the likelihood of the tornadoes? Why are the spring and
early summer the most common times for tornadoes? Why does the funnel cloud look different
near the cloud base than where it comes in contact with the ground?
Answers:
Tornado outbreaks are much more likely to occur in a flat humid area such as this portion of
Colorado. The topography of the Great Plains has few barriers that preclude the intrusion of the
warm moist mT air into the plains, nor does the flat topography prevent southern intrusions of
cold, dry cP air. The absence of topographic barriers allows both air masses to intrude and meet
“head on” in the Great Plains. Late spring and early summer are the most common times of year
198
for their formation because during this time of year there is the greatest contrast between cold,
dry cP air to the north and moist, warm mT air clashing with it from the south.
Suggested Resources:
- Tornadoes: http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/tornadoes/
- Hail: http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/research/hail/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG_orGqMKV8
- Hurricanes: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
The following media are available for this chapter in MasteringGeography for student self study
and for teachers to assign with assessments:
Geoscience Animations:
- Cold Fronts
- Warm Fronts
- Midlatitude Cyclones
- Hurricanes
- Hurricane Hot Towers
- Tornadoes
Videos:
- 2005 Hurricane Season
- Hurricane Sandy
199
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
hour while Billy waited in silence, wondering what they had in mind.
Finally Vorgan turned the communicator on again and said:
"Terran, if what you say is true, you are correct in your assumption
that Sol will be of value as she is. I offer you a chance to prove it.
Sscantoo is against all forms of alliance. Sscantoo will ally herself
with any other race temporarily to fight us. The entire Galaxy may
spring against us if Sscantoo can not be subdued. We must attack
Sscantoo in the due course of time.
"There is one difficulty, however. The Sscantovians are not a
gregarious race. Eventually we shall have the same trouble with
Sscantoo as we have had with Tlembo. The catmen will seek a
worthy adversary, and cause us to attack some sector long before our
plan calls for it. Your premature battle was but one in several caused
by Tlembo, all of which bring the Loard-vogh out of line and off
balance like a runner careening downhill. Numberless though we may
seem, we cannot overrun the Galaxy until our numbers permit it. It
must be taken slowly and with definite pattern.
"Now, Terran, we can wait one year before we hit Sscantoo. I'll give
you that one year, Terran. In that year, you must devise a means of
gathering Sscantoo into the Loard-vogh empire. It must be done
without battle. It must be done without losing a man—no, that is
expecting too much," smiled the Lord of All nastily, "it must be done
without losing more than one hundred men! That does not include
Sscantovians, of course."
"Within one year," said Billy Thompson, "we will hand you Sscantoo
as a willing part of the Loard-vogh empire. It will be done without
battle, without losing more than one hundred men in the process.
What will happen to the Sscantovians I will not presume to care, but I
shall destroy as few as possible. During that year, of course, we will
be free to work?"
"I will countermand the order displacing all Solar Persons save a
small percentage willing to act as data clerks and research co-
ordinators," said Vorgan. "That is my will."
"You will be more than amply repaid," said Thompson. "And one
research we will make to provide the Galaxy with adequate protection
against visiting Terrans, and protection for those visiting the Solar
Sector. That, too, is a promise."
Within an hour, Thompson was on his way back to Terra. A year, he
had. And four months would be gone ere he landed on Terra, and
another long period of time would pass before he could get to
Sscantoo. All in all, Billy felt that he had too little time.
Yet he smiled. For even in defeat, Terra would not lose her integrity.
And how bad is slavery when the master prefixes his request with
"Please"?
XVIII.
Billy Thompson fretted for four long months in the confines of the
returning spacecraft. He was not idle. Daily he spent his time in the
communications room, talking and conferring with his laboratory staff
on Terra.
The order freeing the Solar Sector of its displacement of peoples took
about ten days to clear, and another ten days to settle. It was swift;
no Loard-vogh wanted to remain in that section of the Galaxy
anyway. And though most of the worlds were cleaning up the
shambles of the bitter struggle, the laboratory staff and research
organizations went to work with a will. Let the others clean up the
mess; it was their job to make the cleaning worth while by coming up
with the answer to Billy's problem.
For only the right answer would leave Terrans around to inhabit a
cleaned-up Terra.
So Billy fretted because he had to confer by voice alone. It did not
matter that the secondary radiation from his subtransmitter, exciting
bands in the electromagnetic spectrum near forty megacycles, would
not reach Sol for hundreds of years, and that relative to his ship, the
beams were hurled out backwards instead of coming forward toward
Sol. But the four months were not entirely wasted. By the time that
Billy landed, conferred with Kennebec on the future, discussed the
major problem with a few Terran scientists, and then took off and
finally arrived at the stellar laboratory on VanMaanen's Star's only,
God-forsaken planet, they knew several hundred things that would
not work.
Hendricks, the chief of staff, smiled wearily as Billy entered the safety
dome and flipped back his space helmet.
"Hi, Billy. I hope you have a few new ideas."
"Nope. Not right now. I've been busier than the devil for the past
seventy hours."
"So've we, on the last seventeen suggestions. We ran out of ideas
when you ran into Terra. Now what?"
Billy grinned. "I'd like to see the quake area."
Hendricks blinked, blanched briefly, and then smiled wanly. "I thought
so. Nothing to see, though. We do have a slow-action movie of the
debacle. Reminds me of something out of a superthriller, shot in
miniature. We had the sphere beam set up in duplex, one taking
power out of the star, supplying the other beam which was clutching
about five thousand miles of the star's core. The projectors were
anchored to the crust of Brimstone, here, and we started pulling. We
pulled like a dentist working on an impacted wisdom tooth. Unlike the
dentist, the tooth stayed. We broke several beams, each one doing a
bit of crust-cracking when the pressure let up. Then we took a big bite
and heaved for all we were worth. A slab of crust about seven miles
square heaved up, tilted like a poorly-trimmed raft in a heavy sea,
and slid sidewise into the semi-plastic inner core of Brimstone."
"I'll bet it was bad, huh?"
"We all got away. The planet heaved and gurgled for a week before it
settled down. But Brimstone is less strained than Terra and aside
from a few scattered quakes now and then, she's quiet. Made a mess
of that district, though. Horrible roaring, clouds of boiling steam, and
all the trimmings out of a 'Birth of Terra' animated moving picture."
"Try it with an anchor set in the planet's core?"
"Yeah, but that's too much like anchoring a towline in a cup of
custard. Too plastic. We might do it if stars weren't so confounded far
apart. Beams get awfully thin on that projection even if we could
make it, which I doubt."
"And if we could," said Billy, "we'd have to wait a few years while the
beams got to our stars. They propagate at the speed of light, you
know."
"Wonder if we could drop a beam from close by, go into superdrive
and race for the other star, stretching—"
"What causes the traction?"
"The ... ah ... I see what you mean. It's the fact that the beam itself is
ponderable and unyielding. Superdrive or no, the beam would
propagate at speed of light and the superdriven ship would either be
held back or the beam would break because of the space between
excitation pulses. O.K., Billy, how do we jerk a hunk out of a star
core?"
"We can't do the Samson Trick," said Billy, "but—"
"Samson Trick?"
"Samson was supposed to have brought the temple down about his
ears by taking two of the main pillars and pulling one against the
other. Well, we can't pull one star core against another, but why can't
we set up a tripod, anchored in the stellar core, and then use that as
a base for hauling with another beam? And feed power for the gadget
from other stellar intake beams right from the star itself."
"In other words a sort of reflex Samson Trick? You make the star pull
itself apart, with the aid of mankind and a few thousand years of
technical development. I'll have the boys get to work."
"Did you get any compression?"
Hendricks shook his head.
"That was a vain hope. The stellar core is under hard compression
already. O.K., Jim. Oh, Hello, Cliff."
"Hi, Billy. So you sold them a bill of goods?"
"Unless we get results, Lane, it'll be a bill of goods. If we come
through, we're not bad off. Where's your sidekick?"
"Stellor? He'll be along directly. But look, Billy, what do you intend to
do with this dingcrank when you get it working? Tear the guts out of
the Sscantovian System?"
"Nope. Just insurance."
"We'll need it," grinned Lane. "You cut out a large hunk of selling
when you ask Linzete and his gang of rugged, predatory individualists
to form an alliance with the Loard-vogh."
"Trouble is that 'alliance' isn't the right word. I'm offering the grand
and glorious opportunity of becoming willing subjects to the Loard-
vogh."
"Huh. Never was a cat that took to being ordered around. Gosh,
they're worse than we are. We'll take orders if it will do us any good.
But Sscantovians? Phoooo."
"Well," said Billy, "when a lion tamer enters a cage full of cats he gets
results. But most of them are well equipped with a revolver, a whip,
and a four-legged stool. I'll walk in easily, tell the catmen to be nice,
and wave my whip. But the whip has got to be loaded. Linzete
wouldn't fall for a bluff. Cats don't. You've got to show 'em the stuff,
and then you get your answer. Well, we've a couple of other things to
try."
"We aren't licked yet," nodded Lane cheerfully. "But look, Billy, I'm still
befuddled by Downing's stinking slow, methodical way of doing
things. As I get it, Toralen Ki and Hotang Lu told us that we'd all be
increased in mental stature after the Transformation."
"Sure. We are."
"I don't notice anything."
Thompson grinned. "You won't. You never will. No Terran ever will.
We'll all go on just the same as we were, apparently. It is a Terran
characteristic that a personal change always seems to be an opposite
change in the rest. We'll all go on as we are and the rest of the
Galaxy will appear to get stupider. The change is and has been—and
will continue—to be gradual enough so that you will believe that
you've always been possessed of a near-perfect memory. But play
chess with your pals, and you find that you are still even because the
other guy can lay just as complicated traps as you can with your
increased ability to reason. But you see, it is like that old analogy. If
the entire Galaxy and everything in it were increased by one hundred
times, you would not be able to detect the change. That's because
your yardstick changes, too."
"Relativity, speaking," grinned Lane.
"Classification: Pune. Definition: Pun that needs an oxygen tent. Or
better, the perpetrator a half-hour immersion in liquid helium." He
looked around and saw Stellor Downing, leaning against the door
with a half-amused expression on his face. "Hello, Stellor."
"Howdedo. A nice job of selling you did on Vorgan."
"Yeah, and a nice pinch he put me in."
"Maybe you shouldn't have niggled him so far."
"I was a little rough on him," agreed Billy. "But I pushed him right to
the limit of my safety. I applied all the traffic will bear. I had to, to show
my boldness and to intrigue his fancy, since I knew that in all their
victorious twenty thousand years of conquest they had never hit a
race that stood up and told him off, face to face."
"You knew what you were doing, as usual," admitted Downing. "But I
came to tell you that Hendricks has the tripod beam and the
associated junk is set up and ready for the job of jerking the guts out
of VanMaanen's Star."
It was not too impressive on the surface. Brimstone was cold and
forbidding and airless, the only planet to the runaway star known as
VanMaanen's Star. A useless system save for experiments of this
nature, but excellently adapted for such.
The solar intake beams were operating efficiently. The torrents of
power they would drag out of the star and use to develop the
unthinkable pressures necessary to move the core of the star would
come into the acceptor tubes. Foot-thick superconductors connected
the intake beams to those to be used for the tearing process. And
these superconductors were maintained at the temperature of liquid
helium by a liquid-cooling system. Liquid helium needed no
circulation, since its heat-conducting properties were such that no
local heating in a bath of liquid helium is possible. Normal
evaporation from the open bath at one side kept the system cold, all
the way through to the superconductors.
"Good thing they don't have to use switches or breakers, otherwise I
don't know how they'd handle the energy," said Lane. "A sort of grid-
controlled intake—swell stuff. Well, fellers, let's get in the control
room and see what gives."
Hendricks handed Billy a small chromium-plated case the size of a
cigarette pack.
"We're putting personnel snatchers on all of us. If this blows—in fact if
the whole planet blows, we all end up a couple of thousand miles in
space, all canned up in incompressible spheres. Safety first, I say."
"That's how you saved the gang in the earthquake experiment, isn't
it?"
"Uh-huh," admitted Hendricks.
"Well, let's take off. We've got everything nailed down tight."
Hendricks advanced the power. The meters read up, and the
anchoring tractors moved slightly in their gimbals and became
immobile. The projectors forming the tripod of inflexible beams took
up all the remaining slack in the beam system. Not one piece of
unprotected matter was left to form a weak link. Beams of sheer
energy, efficient to within a fraction of a percent of the ideal one
hundred percent, linked the beams invisibly. A system of inflexible
energy, driven and maintained by the energy output of a star—driven
to rip the core out of the star itself.
The beams thickened as the automatic control advanced in timed
steps. Evaporation from the lake of liquid helium increased as the
superconductors warmed slightly from the terrible load.
A wrenching—feeling—came to them.
A meter indicated that one of the beams—the sphere beam clutching
a five thousand mile sphere of stellar center—indicated a movement
of point one seven four inches.
The automatic controller went up another stepless interval, and the

wrenched—feeling—increased.
Through the viewport, the small flaming disk of VanMaanen's Star
blazed at them. It looked as though it were quite ignorant of the
cosmic forces that were tearing at its vitals. There was an air of saucy
disregard in its placid, immobile brightness.
The pressure increased.
"At this point we jerked up a slab of Brimstone's hard crust,"
remarked Hendricks.
But Brimstone was not in the link. Brimstone was not even present.
The inflexible tripod of energy would scorn to move with the planet.
The control room and the main development housing connected to
the high base of the projector network were depending upon the
invisible tripod of energy, deep in space. Brimstone was a large
moon, a gibbous last quarter, out through one side window.
The automatic control went higher. And as the pressure increased
between the limbs of the tripod, even so increased the power intake
from the star itself.
Did a star have within it enough energy to cause its own destruction?
They did not find out.
The feeling of a wrenching increased, and then leaped into full being.
Nausea, sheer instantaneous torture, a pulsed wave of pain, a
shattering sensation of intolerable noise, a blinding light that came
though the eyes were closed.
But these things were merely the physical and mental effects caused
by—
By what?
There had been no grinding crash. There had been no failure of the
beams.
Yet the meters read zero. Both intake and output. Test power and
operation perfect registered on the string of indicators.
Nothing wrong—
—but the flaming disk of VanMaanen's Star was gone.
Something had failed, but it hadn't been the equipment.
Something had failed, but it hadn't been the star.
And the station and the control room was drifting aimlessly in space.
Inspection showed that no star was close enough to be VanMaanen's
Star. There were no stars within a couple of light-years from them.
Above their heads, the projectors were idling in their slack gimbals,
the tie-beams were off. The solar intake beams were taking in no
power. The lake of helium, a twenty-foot open bath on the roof of the
housing, was lying quiescent.
The entire assembly and assemblage was as it had been before the
initial surge of power, excepting that Brimstone and his bright primary
were nowhere to be seen.
XIX.
"Well, what happened?" asked Lane.
"You tell me," Downing said.
"Obviously something gave—but quick," remarked Billy. "The
question is: What could give?"
"The star didn't. We weren't on the planet. Whatever gave—we are a
long way from where we started, at any rate." Hendricks scratched
his head in puzzlement. "You don't suppose we have gone and
warped ourselves right out of space, do you?"
"That sounds like a comic book plot. I'm not taking any odds-on bets,
though. Have you got an air condenser and a resistance-capacity
bridge? Not the kind that compares a standard condenser against the
unknown in terms of the resistance ratio arms, but one of the cheap
varieties that merely compares the resistance ratio arms against the
ratio of resistance versus capacitive reactance."
"Uh-huh."
"Is it calibrated to within an inch of its eyebrows?"
"Yup."
"Well, the dielectric constant of space is calculable. Measure up your
air condenser and see if it comes out even. Get the boys to measure
the radiation resistance of this space. It should be three hundred and
seventy-seven ohms. That is—if we are still in our original space.
Also you might get the standing wave ratio on some of the microwave
transmission lines. They depend upon the characteristic impedances
of space, the permeability and dielectric constant."
"O.K.," smiled Hendricks.
"Why the smile, Jim?"
"I was merely recalling a story like this. The hero proved it by
determining that Planck's Constant was not the same as back at
home. I was wondering how we'd measure it."
"How did they do it?"
"They didn't say."
"Good thing. Well, I like my method better. By measuring the capacity
of an air dielectric condenser, the dielectric constant of space will be
evident—but only if it is measured on the resistance type of bridge.
Comparing it to a standard condenser would result in both of them
shifting at the same time. Whereas the resistance of a metal wouldn't
change. That does not depend upon the vector analysis factors of
space, whereas capacitive reactance does."
"We might measure the speed of light, too."
"Not until we get this barge to a planet so we can get a decent base
line."
"We're not ill-equipped as all that," objected Hendricks. "This barge,
as you call it, is fully equipped with drivers."
"Why didn't the snatchers work when we took out after the devil?"
asked Lane.
"Nothing blew, in the first place," said Thompson. "And in the second
place, if we've warped ourselves out of our original space, the
snatchers might have had a tough time focusing on something
heading out of space through a warp in the continuum."
"Spectral lines do not mean anything in particular," said Downing,
who had been peering through a solar spectrometer at some of the
nearer stars. "More proof."
"Well, sure. Among items like having a different set of elements and
physical laws, the impedance of space is all tied up in the speed of
light, wave length, is a function of that, and so forth. Show me one
item lying in the field pertaining to the angular vector-pattern of this
space that agrees with that back home and the rest will probably
match too, and we'll be back home but displaced by God-knows-
what."
"Ralph Welles claims that the radiation resistance of space is about
two hundred and seventeen ohms," reported Hendricks. "And Al
Forbes reports that the dielectric constant of space here is about
twenty micromicrofarads per meter less than back home. And the
boys in the microwave group claim that the quarterwave stubs in their
pet transmission line demand a new fundamental frequency of
operation. O.K., fellows. We started to bust up a sun and busted
ourselves right out of space and into another. Well, let's find a nice
solid planet somewhere and get there so we have solar power. Then
we can start thinking of ways to get back."
"So we couldn't pull the insides out of a sun, even using the sun's
own stellar atom factory for power," smiled Thompson, "but we did
manage to pull ourselves right out of space. Sort of a case of the sun
pulling first, I guess."
"Yeah," agreed Lane plaintively. "But how many different spaces are
there in the cosmos?"
"Probably an infinite number infinitesimally separated," answered
Downing.
"In which case," returned Lane, "how many spaces did we skip
between back home and right here?"
"I doubt that the separation between different space continuums is
infinitesimally small," objected Hendricks. "More like a matter of a sort
of quanta-separation. If the separation were not reasonably large, the
energy necessary to break through would not be so great. I predict
that we are in the space next door to our own."
"And if we take hold of another sun and pull—do we go one more
space away or back again?"
"I dunno. There isn't a space-theorist among us. I'll tell you one thing,
though. By the time we pull ourselves back and forth a few times,
we'll know which valve to hold down in order to drive up instead of
down."
Billy nodded. "If, as, and when we get back, let's see if we can devise
a method of tilting a hunk of stellar center into this space from there.
Better, probably, than just jerking it loose."
"Far better," observed Hendricks dryly. "If we can tilt ourselves into a
new space whilst pulling on a stellar core, obviously it is easier to
warp something into a new space than it is to rip the innards out of a
star."
"Is this the point to suggest that we have a brand new galaxy to work
on?" suggested Downing.
"Nope. We'll tell the Loard-vogh about it, though, and they may
decide to do something about it."
Perhaps never before has a stranger object traversed interstellar

space. Not by a stretch of the imagination could any race have
designed a spacecraft resembling the squat housing adorned above
with the battery of projectors. In the first place, it was all wrong for
spacecraft design, being built to sit flat on a planet where the normal
gravitic urge was down—or rather normal to the flat bottom.
Spacecraft are tall, ovoid shells that travel vertically, parallel to their
long axis, and the decking extends from side to side, at right angles
to the ship's course. And the projectors should not be all on one side.
That would leave the strange craft at the mercy of an attacking
enemy from below. Spacecraft armaments consist of one turret in the
top, or nose, one similar turret below, and several at discrete intervals
about the center of the ship for side protection.
Of infinitely more trouble than the problem of traversing space in
superdrive with an engineering project instead of a spacecraft was
the decision of which way to go.
Being lost in the depths of interstellar space without a star map and
with no idea of their position, and no one to call for a "fix," there was
no way of determining which of the stars were the closer. They all
stood there, twinkling against their background of stellar curtain, and
one looked as close as the next. Brightness was no criterion. Deneb,
four hundred light-years from Terra is brighter than Alpha Centaurus,
four light-years away.
Yet, with superdrive, they could cross quite a bit of space in a short
time. Hitting it off in any direction might bring them to within deciding
distance of a star in a short time or it might be that the course went
between stars for many hundred light-years.
It was Hendricks who solved the problem. "Get a hemisphere picture
—and we'll superdrive for one hour and take another. Superimposing
them one a-top the other should give us a reasonable parallax on the
nearer stars. One that we could see with the naked eye."
With the fates obviously laughing up their sleeves, the second plate
was never exposed. At fifty-one minutes of superdrive, the stellar
detector indicated stellar radiation within one quarter light-year.
Planet-locating plates were exposed as the project swept through the
star's neighborhood. There was quite an argument as to which of the
seven planets to choose, and for no other reason than sentimental
reasons—and the fact that the physical constants were right for them
—the group finally fixed their desire on the third planet.
The engineering project started to head for Planet III.
"Better name it, Billy," smiled Hendricks. "You found it."
"I found it? O.K.," grinned Thompson, "we'll call it Eureka."
"Eureka III?"
"Too cumbersome. Since we'll possibly not chart the system let's just
call the planet Eureka and forget about the stellar classification."
"Well, Eureka it is."
Jack Rhodes opened the door. "Better call it Money," he suggested.
"Why?"
"Because you fellows are going to find out that it is the hardest thing
you've ever tried to hold."
"Huh?" asked Hendricks.
"We're right close and there isn't the faintest shred of gravitic field."
"Oh, no. Newton's Law—"
"Is valid right up to the last decimal place. 'Every object in the
universe attracts—' and we just ain't a part of this universe."
"Doesn't seem right."
"May be of exceptionally low density."
"Must be zero then," grinned
Rhodes. "And if so, how does it hold itself together?"
"You answer that—it's your question."
"How long before landing?" asked Hendricks.
"Half hour. Look, chief, d'ye suppose we might find it to be
contraterrene matter?"
"Um. What do you think, Billy?"
"If the matter here is the same as the matter back home, we'd have a
fifty-fifty chance of it being contraterrene. It might even be something
that was neither terrene or contraterrene for all we know."
"Interesting possibility. You mean something that is neutrally charged
so far as we're concerned, but which in this universe consists of
oppositely charged items?"
Billy nodded. "We'll find out."
"It has atmosphere, and the test shell didn't result in a contraterrene
indication," called the pilot of the project.
"An atmosphere of what?"
Rhodes grinned. "God-knows-what," he said. "If Stellor can't make
head nor tail out of the spectrograph, the chances are that the atomic
stuff here might not jibe with ours at all."
"There is really no reason for our planeting at all," said Billy. "But I'm
just curious, that's all."
"We'll be there soon."
The project approached the planet, and was forced to drive all the
way. By the time that they had matched the angular velocity of the
planet's rotation, the project was inverted with respect to the surface
—though to the men it seemed as if they were driving up to a ground-
surface. It gave them an eerie feeling.
"I can see myself visiting a psychiatrist by the time we get back,"
grunted Hendricks. "We're landing—upward—and I'm getting the
screaming terrors already from that feeling of falling upward into the
sky."
"What you're suffering from is the shattering of your basic faith in the
solidity of solid ground," remarked Billy. "Well, the project will land
upside down, and we'll take hold tight with the anchor-projectors.
Long enough, at least, to scrape a sample off of Eureka, here, to
take back and analyze."
"If this whole space is made of the same stuff, I can see a minor
industry springing up, gathering metal and stuff for gravity-proof
gadgets."
"Wonder—probably good for something. Well, we're as close as we
can go, all of us standing with our heads pointing at the planet and
held to the floor of our project by centrifugal force caused by the
planet's rotation. We won't stay long. None of us can stand the
mental strain of looking out of the window and seeing solid ground a
few feet above our heads and a million million miles of sky to fall
down into if we step out of the door. Brrrrr."
"Close the sun proof shutters and don't look," suggested Billy. "I'm
taking a nice large bromide to chill off a few screaming nerves and
then I am going out and take me a shovelful of that dirt and rock up
there. Gosh, it's going to feel funny digging down something that
wants to rise. Let's make it quick."
Billy emerged from the lock completely clad in spacesuit. He took air
samples, and then, with the catch-knob between his shoulder blades
firmly in the focal sphere of a tractor-pressor beam, Billy was shoved
up to the surface of the planet. Reaching up over his head, Billy
pulled down a few stones and dropped them upward into the bucket
he held inverted. They fell upward to the surface of the planet, and
the bucket was held by their weight.
They never did know whether there were any Eurekans, but if there
were, and the Terrans were watched, it was a strange sight they saw.
A sixty-foot rectangular building of steel, one story high, resting
upside down with the planet-side to the sky. Projectors dug into the
ground, pulled by the anchoring tractors that pulled the upside-down
building even tighter to their planet.
From a spacedoor, a pale green beam was fastened to the knob on
the creature's back. He was head down, suspended on the beam,
and carrying a bucket that must have been filled with antigravity
material for the bail was free and the bucket actually hung upward!
The creature was lowered, still head down, to the surface of Eureka.
He reached down below his head and lifted a few stones, dropping
them into the bucket, which he held right-side up. Naturally the
bucket dropped properly enough to the ground.
Working by digging down, Billy filled the bucket and was returned
down to the door.
"Cut 'em!" he said hoarsely.
They cut the anchors and the project was thrown from the surface of
Eureka by centrifugal force. And as they left Eureka, and headed for
the Sun, they held a council and decided that another attempt—blind
though it would be—to warp space would be in order.
XX.
"Get every recording gadget we've got on the thing," said Billy.
"Maybe we can find out something that will give us a directional
trend. And anybody who thinks he won't be struck by lightning if he
makes a prayer, go to it. We could use a bit of Divine Assistance."
The detectors were set up and the recorders started. The tripod of
anchors set themselves in the star's core. The solar intake beams
worked well and the torrents of power increased as the automatic
control slid up the scale.
"The stuff may be different," observed Hendricks, "but we can still
get power from their stars."
"Darned good thing, too," said Thompson. "I don't know how else
we'd swing it."
Again came that feeling of wrenching. And it increased as before.
"Does it feel left-handed or right-handed?" asked Lane nervously.
"I don't know and if I did I wouldn't remember which way it was the
last time," grumbled Downing.
And then the warp formed, and there was the impression, just before
it snapped-quick, that the stars in that universe were flowing like
spots on a watery surface.
And they emerged into a space completely devoid of anything. Not a
star, not a speckle in the complete sphere of utter blackness.
"Obviously went the other way again," grunted Lane.
Jack Rhodes looked up from his calculations. "We had a fifty-fifty
chance, according to the Law of Probabilities. But tossing one head
does not make the next toss any better than fifty-fifty chance for tails.
In fact," mused Rhodes, "tossing a hundred coins may bring you
forty heads and sixty tails—plus or minus ten percent of the true
chance. Tossing a thousand coins may give you four hundred
seventy against five hundred thirty—a three percent error. But
though the latter is more to the true division, the numerical deviation
from zero is only ten in the first case but thirty in the second."
"I hate mathematicians," grunted Downing. "They're all pessimists.
So the longer we try the more distant we get, huh?"
"Unless we can get something to upset the Law of Probability."
"And," added Hendricks sourly, "something to pull against. This
universe is completely devoid of anything material."
"Let's put that as a matter of our being able to detect it at present. It
might be teeming with suns indigenous to this universe and
completely invisible to us."
"We're wasting time," said Thompson. "What's with the detectors and
recorders?"
"About the only thing I can determine from here is a definite
lengthening of the wave length that the puller-sphere propagates
on."
"Huh?" asked Billy.
"Definitely."
"When did it lengthen?"
"Its wave length increased on an exponential curve to the time of
warp—"
"Well, now we know—I think—how to get back."
"How?"
"Instead of pulling, we'll push."

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McKnights Physical Geography A

Landscape Appreciation 12th Edition

McKnights Physical Geography A Landscape Appreciation

McKnights Physical Geography A Landscape Appreciation

Physical Geography A Landscape Appreciation 9th Edition

Physical Geography 11th Edition Petersen Solutions

Living Physical Geography 1st Edition Gervais Solutions

Exploring Physical Geography 1st Edition Reynolds

Fundamentals of Physical Geography 2nd Edition Petersen

Physical Geography 11th Edition Petersen Test Bank

Chapter 7: Atmospheric Disturbances

Learning Outcome 7.12 Explain the characteristics of a midlatitude cyclone. 183

Learning Outcome 7.21 Explain the characteristics of a hurricane. 187

Learning Outcome 7.22 Describe the structure of a hurricane. 188

Learning Outcome 7.28 Explain the formation of a mesocyclone. 198

Learning Outcome 7.29 Explain the formation of tornadoes. 196

Chapter 7: Atmospheric Disturbances

The Impact of Storms on the Landscape

I. The Impact of Storms on the Landscape

II. Air Masses

7. Localized Severe Weather

IV. Midlatitude Cyclones

VI. Midlatitude Anticyclones

VII. Easterly Waves

VIII. Tropical Cyclones: Hurricanes

3. Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale has been established to rank the intensity of

IX. Localized Severe Weather

c) Associated with other mechanisms that can trigger unstable uplift.

(i) No one knows because tornadoes blow to bits anemometers

X. Focus: Conveyer Belt Model of Midlatitude Cyclones

XI. Global Environmental Change: Are Tornado Patterns Changing?

XII. Focus: Weather Radar

McKnight and Hess 12e Chapter 7 Learning Checks

Learning Check 7-1

Learning Check 7-3

Compare the characteristics of cold fronts and warm fronts.

Learning Check 7-4

What causes fronts to develop within a midlatitude cyclone?

Learning Check 7-5

Explain where and why precipitation develops within a midlatitude cyclone.

See Learning Check question 7-4.

Learning Check 7-6

Describe the process that forms an occluded front.

Learning Check 7-7

Learning Check 7-8

Why are midlatitude anticyclones associated with dry weather?

Learning Check 7-9

Describe the characteristics of an easterly wave.

Learning Check 7-10

Why is warm, moist air the “fuel” for a hurricane?

Learning Check 7-11

Learning Check 7-12

What causes a hurricane’s storm surge?

A storm surge is a surge of wind-driven water caused by a hurricane. It is as much as 8 meters

Learning Check 7-13

Describe the sequence of development and dissipation of a typical thunderstorm.

A thunderstorm is a violent convective storm accompanied by thunder and lightning; it is usually

During the dissipating state, downdrafts dominate and turbulence ceases.

Learning Check 7-14

Explain the sequence of formation of a typical tornado associated with a mesocyclone.

Chapter 7 Learning Review

Key Terms and Concepts

Air Masses (p. 176)