MIDLATITUDE WEATHER SYSTEMS
PART II: THE EXTRATROPICAL CYCLONE
Summer 1999
Lecture # 20 Scheduled for:
20 JUL 1999 (T)
and
21 JUL 1999 (W)
Recommended Readings from Moran and Morgan (1997):
pages 261-272; 272-276; 391-394.
Today's Lecture Objectives:
To describe briefly the contribution made to meteorology by the Norwegian
School with the polar front cyclone model.
To identify the relative size and characteristics of an extratropical cyclone.
To locate and describe the general temperature-field, the wind regime and
the cloud and precipitation pattern associated with a model extratropical
cyclone.
To locate the regions of greatest pressure change with respect to time
in a migratory extratropical cyclone.
To outline the sequence of stages in the life cycle of a migrating midlatitude
wave cyclone.
To relate the features associated with a surface extratropical cyclone
and the upper tropospheric wind regime.
To identify regions of cyclogenesis and the major storm tracks across North
America.
To distinguish between warm frontal weather and cold frontal weather and
their associated weather sequences during frontal passage.
To describe the weather sequences (i.e., changes in wind direction, pressure
tendency, cloud type and coverage, precipitation and temperature) when
the warm or cold side of a wave cyclone passes an observer.
To locate the position and forecast the movement of an extratropical storm
by interpreting the sequence of wind direction, pressure change, temperature
change and cloud/precipitation type at a station.
To identify the hazards associated with winter storms and define the forecasting
terms used to describe them.
Last revision 26 May 1999
Produced by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D.
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI 53706
hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu