Answers to the Feb. 11 In-class Optional Assignment


All of the pressures colored in blue are less than 1004 mb.  All of the pressures shaded in red are greater than 1004 mb. 


Pressure on the isobars are getting higher as you move in toward the center.  This is a surface center of high pressure.


I did a good job of making the second part of the question as confusing as I could (better to have that happen on an optional assignment than on a quiz).  It's probably best to just disregard the answer choices. 

Winds spin clockwise and spiral outward around surface centers of high pressure (northern hemisphere).  The winds are shown with arrows in the figure above and using the station model notation in the figure below. 

The fastest winds (20 knots) will be found in the green shaded region above where the isobars are tightly spaced and where the pressure gradient is the strongest.



Note meteorologists generally specify the direction the wind is coming from.  That's why the winds above are labelled SE and NW.


Point A is found in the region of colder than 50 F temperatures.  Point C is south of the 50 F isotherm and temperatures there are warmer than 50 F.



Air in the orange-shaded region has temperatures in the 60s and winds are blowing from the south.  The other air mass has winds from the west or northwest and temperatures in the 50s (green) and 40s (blue).  The cold front separates these two air masses.

Note that one end of the cold front originates in the low pressure center.  The front will rotate in a counterclockwise direction around the low.