What are the 4 major types of air masses?

There are four categories for air masses: arctic, tropical, polar and equatorial. Arctic air masses form in the Arctic region and are very cold. Tropical air masses form in low-latitude areas and are moderately warm.

What are the 5 air masses that affect the UK?

There are 5 main air masses that affect the UK. These are polar continental, arctic maritime, polar maritime, tropical maritime and tropical continental. Each brings unique weather to the UK. These are shown in the image below.

What are the 5 main types of air masses?

These are Polar (cold), Arctic (very cold), Equatorial (warm and very moist), and Tropical (warm). In the United States the major air mass types are typically continental Polar, maritime Polar, continental Tropical, and maritime Tropical.

What are the 7 different types of air masses?

The air masses in and around North America include the continental arctic (cA), maritime polar (mP), maritime tropical (mT), continental tropical (cT), and continental polar (cP) air masses. Air is not the same everywhere.

What is the most common air mass in the UK?

Polar maritime
Polar maritime is the most common air mass to affect the British Isles. This air mass starts very cold and dry but during its long passage over the relatively warm waters of the North Atlantic its temperature rises rapidly and it becomes unstable to a great depth.

What do air masses do?

An air mass is a large body of air with generally uniform temperature and humidity. The area over which an air mass originates is what provides its characteristics. The longer the air mass stays over its source region, the more likely it will acquire the properties of the surface below.

How air masses are formed?

Air masses are formed when air stagnates for long periods of time over a uniform surface. The characteristic temperature and moisture of air masses are determined by the surface over which they form. An air mass acquires these attributes through heat and moisture exchanges with the surface.

Which air mass is the driest?

cA air masses
cA air masses are the coldest of the cold and the driest of the dry. Cold and dry cA air masses originate over the frozen hinterlands of Siberia and northern Canada, and to see just how cold and dry they can be in the winter, check out the 18Z surface analysis for December 3, 2002.

How do air masses move?

Air masses build when the air stagnates over a region for several days/weeks. To move these huge regions of air, the weather pattern needs to change to allow the air mass to move. One major influence of air mass movement is the upper level winds such as the upper level winds associated with the jet stream.