doppler radar mexico and southwestern united states

Several heat deaths have been confirmed in the US, including migrants on the US Mexican border. In the US, parts of Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico tied their all time high, parts of Arizona, Cayman Islands, highest ever night time temperatures in Phoenix Arizona which also had its record for longest time without falling below 90F/32.2C. In Europe, the hottest ever day in Catalunya was recorded and highest-ever records of daily minimum temperature were broken in other parts of Spain. Records were also reached in many other weather stations in China and the all-China heat record was broken in Sanbao on the 16th of July. Temperatures exceeded 50C on the 16th of July in Death Valley in the US as well as in Northwest China ( CNN,2023 ). Warm fronts typically have a gentle slope, so the air rising along the frontal surface is gradual.July 2023 saw extreme heatwaves in several parts of the Northern Hemisphere, including the Southwest of the US and Mexico, Southern Europe and China. Therefore, fronts aren’t just at the surface of the Earth they have a vertical structure or slope to them as well. Therefore, as these cold air masses move, the dense air undercuts the warmer air masses, forcing the warm air up and over the colder air and causing it to rise into the atmosphere. The air of cold air masses is more dense than warmer air masses. The motion of air masses also affects where a good portion of precipitation occurs. There is also a stationary front, which, as the name implies, means the boundary between two air masses does not move. A warm front is the opposite – when warm air replaces cold air. With a cold front, a colder air mass is replacing a warmer air mass. Where air masses converge, they form boundaries called 'fronts'.įronts are identified by a change of temperature based upon their motion. As the jet stream changes intensity and position, it affects the motion and strength of air masses. Air mass boundariesĪir mass motion is usually based upon the air flow in the upper atmosphere. This is called a continental polar air mass (cP). If that same polar air mass moves south from Canada into the southern U.S., it will pick up some of the warmth of the ground, but due to lack of moisture, it remains very dry. For example, in winter, an arctic air mass (very cold and dry air) can move over the ocean, picking up some warmth and moisture from the warmer ocean and becoming a maritime polar air mass (mP) – one that is still fairly cold but contains moisture. The desert region air masses (hot and dry) are designated by 'cT' for 'continental tropical'.Īs these air masses move around the Earth, they can acquire additional attributes. Maritime polar (mP) is also cold but moist due to its origin over the oceans. Continental polar (cP) is not as cold as the Arctic air mass but is also very dry. Putting both designations together, we have, for example, a 'continental arctic' air mass designated by 'cA', which originates over the poles and is therefore very cold and dry. Tropical air masses, designated by the letter 'T', originate over the lower latitudes of both land and sea and therefore are warm/hot.Polar air masses, designated by the letter 'P', originate over the higher latitudes of both land and sea and are therefore not as cold as Arctic air masses.Arctic air masses, designated by the letter 'A', originate over the Arctic or Antarctic regions and therefore are very cold.Maritime air masses, designated by the letter 'm', originate over the oceans and are therefore moist air masses.Įach of the two divisions are then divided based upon the temperature of the surface over which they originate. Continental air masses, designated by the lowercase letter 'c', originate over continents and are therefore dry air masses. There are two broad overarching divisions of air masses based upon moisture content. The longer the air mass stays over its source region, the more likely it will acquire the properties of the surface below. The area over which an air mass originates is what provides its characteristics. National Centers for Environmental PredictionĪn air mass is a large body of air with generally uniform temperature and humidity.

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Doppler radar mexico and southwestern united states