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Summary Geography climate and weather
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Geography climate and weather notes.
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GEOGRAPHY NOTES 2020MID-LATITUDE CYCLONES
Key terms
- Cyclone: a low pressure system, sometimes called a depression.
- Cyclogenesis: the development or strengthening of cyclonic circulation in the
atmosphere.
- Cold front: the boundary between a warm and a cold air mass, where the cold
air undercuts the warm air, causing it to rise.
- Front: the transition zone between air masses of markedly different
temperature and humidity over a relatively short distance of 50-100 km.
- Mid-latitude cyclone: large, travelling atmospheric cyclonic storms in the
middle latitudes, up to 2000km in diameter, with centres of low atmospheric
pressure, which are the result of the dynamic interaction of moist warm
tropical and dryer cold polar air masses at the polar front.
- Warm front: the front edge of a body of advancing warm air where it meets
and rises above a body of colder air.
- Cold front: the boundary between a warm and a cold air mass, where a cold air
mass undercuts the warm air mass, causing it to rise.
- Occluded front: a transition zone in the atmosphere where an advancing cold
air mass sandwiches another cold air mass pushing the warm air into the
upper atmosphere.
,- Satellite images: Photographs of the Earth’s surface taken by satellites;
picture-like representation of digital data about the Earth received from
sensors carried by satellites.
- Synoptic weather map: map with symbols showing a summary from hundreds
of weather observations of the atmospheric conditions over a wide area at a
particular time.
- Storm surges: a local rise in the sea level near the centre of a tropical storm
that leads to the flooding of low-lying areas.
, The general characteristics of mid-latitude cyclones
- Mid-latitude cyclones are also called frontal depressions.
- These are low pressure systems (lows) associated with the meeting of warm and cold air
masses.
- These masses have different densities so they do not readily mix but are separated by a
front.
- A warm front is found where the warm air is advancing and is forced to overlap the cold
air.
- A cold front is found where advancing cold air overcuts a body of warm air.
- In the southern hemisphere – winds rotate clockwise into the centre of the low.
- In the northern hemisphere – anticlockwise.
- Diameters of mid-latitude cyclones can vary from 1000-4000 km and they occur all year
round.
IN SOUTH AFRICA:
- Their influence is strongest in winter.
- They bring familiar cold fronts which are often accompanied by rain
- In summer they move further south of the country,
- They range in intensity from a mild disturbance to a powerful storm.
- In summer – they tend to move further south of the country.
Cyclogenesis occurs as a result of an imbalance in the energy between the polar and
tropical regions.
- Mid-latitude cyclones form approximately between 30 and 60 degrees north and south of
the equator. They move from west to east, in a south-easterly direction within the
westerly winds at speeds of about 40-90 km/h.
- Sometimes a series of fronts develops (a family) in which the fronts follow each other.
- In the southern hemisphere :
- The oldest frontal system will be furthest towards the south-east.
- Frontal zone: 50-100km wide.
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