Troughs and Ridges

[Michael Wilkinson]

Are troughs and ridges wave patterns vertically in the atmosphere (ridges at higher elevations than troughs)? Or, are they wave patterns that are horizontal (ridges at northern points and troughs at southern points)?

I'm having trouble visualizing what is happening.

 

[rdale]

Here's a good start - http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints2/457/

METED class: https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_module.php?id=1147

 

[Jeff House]

Both. Links above are great. They explain the weather charts well. Troughs/Ridges appear on horizontal weather charts. Also ridges are associated with higher heights (500 mb or any level). Troughs have lower heights. Indeed one tries to visualize the 3D atmo from 2D charts. Pattern recognition visualizes a 3D movie from 2D charts.

 

[Michael Wilkinson]

Here's a good start - http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints2/457/

METED class: https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_module.php?id=1147

Thank you so much for your help. I'm progressing slowly through the MetEd courses. Mastery of Skew-T took me longer than a week. The more advanced courses are much more involved than the basic spotter training was.

For any other fellow newbies, the MetEd courses are very helpful.

I also benefitted from watching all of the videos posted by Stefan Becker, starting with this one, then progressing through the chapters in nummerucal order:

And, I've gone through Rich Thompson's tornado forecasting series twice. I understood more the second time. I plan on listening to it a third time while I'm working this week. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXGa7b1eyWIdFSC_uA8o9ca7mMRWzKrA