Air over the mountains - Part 1

 

Original AI prompt - air over the mountains.  

One of the nice things about doing physics for weather is that you can zoom into the fine points of mechanisms.  I always took apart gear clocks when I was a kid, and was fascinated.  Now, you just get hand-waving weather people saying 'It's magic'.  

Mountains, continents and plate tectonics are extremely important for our weather.  You don't get that from the magic people.  The standard Grade 6 explanation they use, is that ocean winds flow over the mountains, drop the rain, and there is dry land behind.  I'm not happy with that.

I have found great complexity in how mountains affect the weather.  Most important, is how they go over the high mountains, and how much energy is left.

This warm, wet air has many times the heat energy of dry air.  It crosses the Atlantic and hits the Andes.  The ridge of the mountains looks like there is no moisture, but the energy still makes it.

The surface winds are going around, but they don't hold energy.  The energy band is actually going over the mountains, becoming snow, and then zooming down the mountains and reforming as precipitable air.  This is so neat.  Sometimes, the air is deflected to the south.

This great phenomenon has no real effect on global weather.  The warm, wet air is drained over the cold Pacific and dies like a trumpy speech praising murderpoots.  It does serve to keep the El No-no myth alive.

Next we have the Rockies, always a source of me mucking up the forecast.

- to be continued, if I get a coffee.