In my first blog entry, I mentioned I wanted to “teach” a little weather from time to time. I think now is the perfect time to pick a very basic weather term and that term is High Pressure.

You’ve likely heard us weather-folk on the air saying “high pressure is in control” or “there is a ridge of high pressure moving in” and possibly wondered what that means. Perhaps you’ve seen weather maps with H’s on them. I’ve actually had a few calls from people wanting to know exactly what high pressure means. The short and simple answer is it’s an area where air pressure is higher than surrounding air.

High pressure is generally, but not always, associated with nice weather. Perhaps the best indicator is the lack of clouds in the sky. The reason for the lack of clouds has to do with what the air in the high pressure is doing. Air from high altitudes is descending, or falling, to Earth’s surface. That descending air is what causes an increase in pressure. Also, as the air gets lower, it warms and that tends to inhibit cloud formation.

Winds associated with high pressure rotate flow clockwise. If you’re on the eastern side of high pressure, it tends to be cooler. The reason for that is the winds are coming from the north, northwest, or west and drawing cooler air from the north. If you’re on the western side, temperatures tend to be warmer. Winds are flowing from the south or southwest and bringing in warmer air.

I hope that helps explain why we’ve been enjoying so much sunshine over the last several days.

As always, I encourage you to leave comments and email me your interesting weather pictures to kgarcia@fox28.com.

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