Surface Weather Map Symbols Key

How to read surface weather maps.

Surface weather map symbols key. Cumulonimbus thunderstorms ac. Cold polar air has low thickness and values of 528 dam or less frequently bring snow to the uk. Conversely warm tropical air has high thickness and values in excess of 564 dam across the uk often indicate a heatwave. Describe general relationships between wind patterns and centers of high and low air pressure shown on weather maps.

Stratus low clouds fog sc. We draw lines called fronts. Stationary front a front between warm and cold air masses that is moving very slowly or not at all. Just as equations are the language of mathematics weather symbols are the language of weather so that anyone looking at a map should be able to decipher the same exact information from it that is if you know how to read it.

Hypothesize what weather conditions may be like in the next day or two at specific locations. Stratocumulus mainly fair tcu. In this example the temperature is 77 f. Winds often converge or come together at.

In the example to the upper right the southern alps buckle the isobars coming in from the tasman sea with a build up of pressure on the windward side and a counter balancing drop of pressure down wind from the mountains. Two types of occlusions can form depending on the relative coldness. A weather map and its symbols are meant to convey a lot of weather information quickly and without using a lot of words. Cold front a zone separating two air masses of which the cooler denser mass is advancing and replacing the warmer.

However there are some common features typically found of these images. Occluded front a composite of two fronts formed as a cold front overtakes a warm or quasi stationary front. Here is an introduction to weather maps and their symbols. A popular type of surface weather map is the surface weather analysis which plots isobars to depict areas of high pressure and low pressure.

Weather charts commonly show contour lines of 1 000 500 hpa thickness which represent the depth in decametres where 1 dam 10 m of the layer between the 1 000 hpa and 500 hpa pressure levels. Because of this distortion avoid trying to use isobars over mountains to work out wind direction. In this example the visibility is five miles. Identify fronts appearing on the map the weather likely to be occurring on either side of a front and the motions of fronts.

The number at the lower left is the dew point temperature. Cloud codes are translated into symbols and plotted on these maps along with other meteorological data that are included in synoptic reports sent by professionally trained observers. In the section about the origin of wind we have already seen the source of the highs and lows. Fronts are usually detectable at the surface in a number of ways.

On the second row the far left number is the visibility in miles. One terrain effect does show up on the weather map. Warm front a transition zone between a mass of warm air and the cold air it is replacing. Weather map symbols 77 998 5 03 71 20 a d b b ef h i b 1 j 2 3 g c in the upper left the temperature is plotted in fahrenheit.

But how are the boundaries between air masses depicted. Chains of mountains distort isobars crossing them. Decode the symbols appearing on a surface weather map and describe weather conditions at various locations on the map. Also in general avoid using isobars to work out windflow over high.