Can someone explain how weather works, in relatively simple terms?
I understand the basics, like hot air rises at the equator and then some flows north and some south, creating wind and the basis of weather patterns.
There are some other things that I can’t figure out:
- What makes one location more humid than another? (i.e. east coast summer vs. SF summer)
– What makes one location more foggy than another? (i.e. London or SF)
– I remember hearing that locations along the same latitude will experience similar climates/temps, is this true?
That’s all I can think of at the moment, but feel free to mention anything of interest that might better inform me of how weather works. Obviously, I’m most fascinated by how weather can be so different in different locations, even if they are geographically close (i.e. California’s micro-climates). :)
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5 Answers
I’ll jump in with the fog—San Fran is on the coast of California. There is a current that goes from north to south, cold water from the north mixes with the land air and…... Drum roll + + + + + + FOG.
Most places with fog have access to a cold ocean.
There are so many influences:
As well as latitude, which you noted, there is also altitude (higher places are normally cooler), proximity to water and prevailing winds (which is why western Oregon is a rain forest, but eastern Oregon, on the other side of the Cascades Mountains, is a high desert after winds blowing from the Pacific have dumped moisture on the seaward side of the mountains) and other geographic features (such as the aforementioned mountains in western US). There are also large ocean currents to consider: Myrtle Beach, SC usually has warmer water than Long Beach, CA, because the Gulf Stream brings warm water north from the Caribbean, and in California the currents come from the north, bringing cooler water. Places surrounded by land only, such as the Central Plains of the US and most of Siberia and China, for example, can get very hot and very cold because there isn’t ocean water to temper the highs and lows as there is on most coastal regions. And Buffalo, NY gets huge snowfalls before Lake Erie freezes because prevailing westerly winds pick up moisture from the liquid water there (before ice-over) and drop it as snow over the cooler land mass.
VERY simplistic explanation:
As the earth spins, the sunny side of the planet gets warmer, and the night side of the planet gets cooler. Warm air expands. This causes air movement, sometimes violent air movement from the warmer side to the cooler side. Also, the heat of the day makes ground water evaporate. Moisture rises and condenses into clouds. The aforementioned air movement pushes the clouds around. As the air in the upper atmosphere cools, the moisture can’t stay airborne so it falls back to the ground as rain. Repeat.
What makes one location more humid than another?
And why is Missouri humid, literally in the middle of the continent? WTF? I spent a miserable week there one summer.
I remember hearing that locations along the same latitude will experience similar climates/temps
They can. But Rome Italy and Buffalo NY are both 42 degrees N. London England and Calgary Canada are 51 N. Athens Greece and San Francisco are 37 N.
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