What is Weather?
Weather is a common ingredient in our every day lives yet for most people it is more mysterious than many other
aspects of nature. Weather is the instantaneous and constantly changing state of the atmosphere. The weather
affects everyone. For example the weather determines if a region is in a long term drought or has lot's of flooding
and weather also determines how much rain or how little rain a region gets. Knowledge of the forces and phenomina involved
in the weather can help the average person get a better understanding. This wiki is here to help you get a detailed list
of different weather phenomina and information aswell as a idea of how the weather works.
Large-Scale Airflow Patterns:
Earth's Atmosphere is driven into motion by the uneven heating of our planet by the sun. Now because the sun passes nearly
overhead at noon in the tropics the ground and air recieve much more solar heat then the polar regions where the sun is at
a lower angle thus spreads the available sunlight over much larger areas. Heated tropical air rises and spreads outward
towards the north and south poles, while the cold polar air sinks and flows towards the equater in the lower levels of the
Atmosphere. The airflow is called the "Hadley Circulation", after the englishmen who proposed the concept in 1735.
The complex pattern of winds we actually see is the Coriolis Effect which is the result of the Earth's roatation.
By the time the Coriolis effect reaches 20-30* N (and S) lattitude, the speed difference becomes so great that the
air no longer flows towards the poles but is deflected Eastward into the subtropical jet-stream, one of the strongest
and most consistent winds of the world. The Coriolis effect deflects all moving air on Earth to some degree. It is also
responsible for the spiral motions found in Hurricanes,Tornadoes and other Storms. The patterns and currents change
as the time of year or seasons change.
The westerlies is air that circles the globe at mid lattitudes and bows and bends thousunds of miles long.
The prevailing westerlies is winds blowing from the west. There is also the trade-wind easterlies and Artic easterlies.
Now the wind comes from the east.
Highs and Lows:
Embedded in the braod stream of the prevailing westerlies, smaller whirls and eddies push east and are responsible for
most of our weather. these whirls are the high and low pressure systes also known as cyclones and anticyclones or lows and highs.
Cyclones turn counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere while they turn clock wise in anticyclones in the southern hemishere
. Example most of Japan's tornadoes move clock wise while in the US most tornadoes move counter clockwise. These lows and highs
bring fair and foul weather with them. Cyclones are centers of low barometric pressure while anticyclones have high pressure. This is
for both hemispheres. Low pressure is from surrounding areas of higher pressure. Putting all of these motions
together, the air spirals outward from the center of a high pressure cyclone and inward for a low pressure cyclone.
Cyclones can be a small whirlwind or dust devil or a huge region of low pressure covering sometimes half a continent.
Cyclones almost always form on a boundary known as a front between artic air to the north and sub tropical air to the south.
With 4 basic kinds of fronts, and a boundary between opposing air masses may lie still for awhile before a cyclone develops.
If the air on the arm side of the front is moist then slow-moving thunderstorms may develop bringing heavy rain and floods but
these stationary front are usually fairly tranquil places with patches of light rain or snow resulting in drizzly weather.
As the cyclone starts spinning the stationary front starts moving. Northbound warm air marks a warm front usually on the east side of a stom center
while west of the center southbound cold air marks a cold front with artic air plunging south behind the cold front.
Along cold fronts heavier cold air shoves like a wedge beneath warm and usually moist air. This can cause the warm air to
force upward and cool making it's moisture condenses into clouds,rain and snow. The forced uplifing is often great enough that it results in
heavy showers and thunderstorms. Warmfronts overruns the cold air with a more gentler rising motion producing more moderate but longer lasting
rain and snowfalls. Ocludded fronts are cold and warm air mixing together. The warm sector, a wedge of warm air caught
between the two fronts shrinks. Allthought the warm sector is lifted off the ground for thousunds of miles it can still produce
rain and snow.
The cyclones departure brings clearing and cooler weather as the anticyclone or high bring in several days of nice dry weather.
As the anticyclone passes overhead or moves east winds turn southerly in advance to the next cyclone.
, after all, we're all here to live and learn, as well as to enjoy the social side of chasing 
