Air masses formed over specific regions carry their origin’s moisture and temperature
Evidence
All of North America is influenced in climate by what are called air masses, vast stretches of thousands of cubic miles of similar type air that move in cyclic and often predictable ways across land and sea. Each such air mass is apparently the creature of the area in which it is born. Thus the polar Canadian air mass brings its cold, dry air out of the inland heart of northern Canada and moves southward in winter to be moisturized by the Great Lakes, where snowstorms often bring greater moisture to the land near them than reaches the land farther north or south or west. — Vinson Brown, Reading the Woods, 86
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines ‘air mass’ as a body of air born of a particular region, the key term for interpreting Minnesota’s weather-and-vegetation patterns.
- XREF: The polar Canadian air mass crossing the Great Lakes explains Minnesota snow belts and the lake-effect moisture relevant to local forest communities. — connects to: Mountain ranges, coasts, and Great Lakes channel air-mass movement that creates regional climates. — Vinson Brown, Reading the Woods: Seeing More in…, 93; Warm moist tropical air from the Gulf drives the Midwest’s humid summer climate — Vinson Brown, Reading the Woods: Seeing More in…, 87; Climate shapes signal propagation through humidity and temperature-dependent sound absorption — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology: Principles,…, 756
Broader Connections
- Warm moist tropical air from the Gulf drives the Midwest’s humid summer climate
#expands(1.00) — Vinson Brown, Reading the Woods, 87 - Mountain ranges, coasts, and Great Lakes channel air-mass movement that creates regional climates.
#complicates(0.80) — Vinson Brown, Reading the Woods, 93 - Climate shapes signal propagation through humidity and temperature-dependent sound absorption
#expands(0.80) — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology, 756