Sunday 1 March 2015

Air Masses, Global Winds and Types of Rain

1) Dominant Air Mass that impacts your country. Think about the different seasons. 

In Hawaii, the dominant air mass is maritime polar due to it occurring at low latitudes which makes it warmer and therefore tropical. Maritime tropical air masses originate over the warm waters of the tropics where heat and moisture are transferred to the overlying air from the waters below.  This air mass is usually warm, unstable and  moist. In the winter months, there are sunny skies with some precipitation. Whereas in the summer months, there can be stormy conditions. 

2)The Global Wind that mainly impacts your country.

The global wind which mainly impacts Hawaii is the northeasterly wind which comes from the  north and east, and it moves toward the west. They are also known as trade winds. They blow through the island for a majority of the year and are most common in the summer and less common in the winter.



3)Type of rain most commonly found in your country. Be sure to explain why this is a common rain. Give specific examples from your country.

Orograpahic precipitation is most commonly found in Hawaii. This is caused by winds carrying moist air forced to go up over a mountain barrier. As the air rises and cools, orographic clouds form and act as rain which falls upwind of the mountain ridge.

 Orographic precipitation is the most common rain in Hawaii because the Hawaiian Islands have many mountainous regions and also, lie in the tropics where there is moist air and many mountain ranges and peaks where the air rises up to, cools and eventually acts as rain through the orographic clouds. 

For instance the island O'ahu on Hawaii consists of two parallel mountain ranges which creates an interesting distribution for orographic rain since they are perpendicular to each other. There are a maximum of three orogrpahic rainfalls on O'ahu.


A video of Orographic precipitation:


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