Springfield, Missouri located near the Ozark Mountains and front row tickets to the action from ‘Tornado Alley’. The topography of this city causes similarities and differences in weather next to Fairbanks, Alaska. They both share the dry, cold continental polar (cP) air mass, for Springfield it comes down from the north in the winter. The difference between the cities lies in the collision of the second air mass. Fairbanks receives a cold, moist air-mass from the Aleutian Low causing a warm occlude front creating the precipitation to form in snow; while Springfield collides with the Bermuda Azores High. The Bermuda Azores High coming in from the Gulf of Mexico has a following of warm, moist air causing a cold occlude front. [1] The warm air from the maritime tropic (mP) over taken by the colder air of the continent polar (cP); causing the warm parcels to freeze--result--ice storms. [2]
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| photo by Weather Journal http://weatherjournalandmisc.owlinc.org/ |
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| photo by Alan Burkhart http://alanburkhart.blogspot.com/2009/01/images-from-missouri-ice-storm.html |
Springfield, affected by two different types of air masses; the Bermuda Azores High and the Continental Yukon High can make for thunderstorms in the Spring and Summer. From these storms, a super cell thunderstorm can grow which creates Tornado’s. The super cell from which the Tornado comes from must be very unstable and consist of the cold, dry polar air (cP) arguing with the warm, moist tropic air (mT). Now, lets imagine a pencil (cold air) rolling across a flat surface. As the pencil is still rolling something slowly starts to lift the pencil into a vertical direction (uplift) while still in motion. The air mass when colliding starts to swirl and form funnels. This funnel begins to spin faster and creates a low-pressure area, this in turns gathers more air from the outside (possibly debris) into it; the creation of a Tornado.[3]
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| diagram from NESTA |
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| photo by Dick Gowan http://stackedplates.blogspot.com/2009/07/storm-photos-of-day.html |
[1]Morvay, Megan, weatherandclimate3232@wordpress.com
[2]Lutgens, Frederick K., Edward J. Tarbuck, and Dennis Tasa. "Air Masses." The Atmosphere: an Introduction to Meteorology. 11th ed. New York: Prentice Hall, 2010. 249. Print.
[3]"Tornado Formation." Windows to the Universe. National Earth Science Teachers Association (NESTA). Web. <http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/tornado/formation.html>.
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