scin137 week 4 forum responses

Reply posts 100-200 words

 #1

This week in Virginia Beach we are finally experiencing some sunny weather. Due to the two massive fronts that passed over the country last week we have had no sun and non-stop rain. Over the weekend it rained from sunup to sundown, finally stopping Sunday morning. The last of the high pressure systems that was moving across us passed out into the ocean early Sunday morning. On Saturday our high was 46 degrees and by Sunday afternoon it was sunny with a high of 74, a real drastic change in temperature. With this drastic change in temperature came a drastic change in wind speed. We went from little to no wind to 40 to 50 MPH gusts in the evening. At one point my trashcan blew over so I went to go pick it up and between my house and my neighbors I witnessed a piece of trash demonstrating a perfect eddie as it continually circled around between the houses. It took me a minute to chase it down but I finally got ahold of it. Today we have clear skies but still have heavy winds going from southeast to northeast, judging by the map these winds would be coming out of the tropics and could potentially cause some storms to arise as they collide with the beach front air. 

 As far as the lesson goes I understood most of it quite well. The only real question I have is how exactly does a high pressure front turn into a low pressure front, or vice versa.

#2

This week’s weather has been very different than last week’s. We got some relief from the rain, which was seriously needed. Our yard was starting to look more like a swamp. Right now we have some cirrocumulus cloud coverage. Today’s forecast chart show an occluded front to the north of us and the three-day projection shows a cold front coming in around Thursday with possible rain and thunderstorms. Dang, just when it was drying up outside. I did know that south was the rainiest region in the country when we moved here, however.

I had to email the professor about the lab, I couldn’t figure out how to determine where the cloud base had formed. He advised that the cloud base forms where the relative humidity is 100%, or where the temperature and dew-point temperature are the same. I really enjoyed learning about how to read the weather charts this week. I know that knowledge will be useful in the future. I also really liked learning about the air mass designations. Again, this is information I can use to look at the weather. I am a kinesthetic (hands on) learner so learning information relevant to every day life is exciting for me.

I appreciated the different references to the Rockies in the lesson this week. I lived there recently for almost 2 years and I always thought the weather was wonky. But, the lesson explained how it could be 60 degrees one day and snowing the next. It also explained the afternoon thunderstorms that seemed to occur on a daily basis.