Weather Banter - View Single Post - Where's all the Hurricance Frances talk? Schneider?

Dennis M. Rodgers · August 31st 04, 07:12 PM posted to sci.geo.meteorology

wrote:

And the crowd roars its approval. Who needs the national hurricane center?
Go west young man, or woman (is Frances a male or female? I suppose female
because of spelling). I can see the signs on boarded windows already:
"Lighten up, Frances!"

I can understand "ridges" very well, but I admit I'm a bit fuzzy on the
whole "trough" concept. I think I read somewhere that it was an elongated
low pressure area, but all I see on the map on weather.com is a long mostly
blue partly red line leading up the Appalachians. I see no indication that
it's a low pressure area, which I understand to be low pressure areas which
rotate counter-clockwise. What's portrayed on the map is what I understood
to be a warm/cold front, not a low pressure area. So what exactly IS that
thing on the map, in layman's terms.

Jason

A trough is, as you already stated, an elongated low
pressure area. You seem to be confusing that with a closed
low, which would exhibit a cyclonic circulation. Frontal
zones are drawn in troughs. The map you looked at on
weather.com must not have included a pressure analysis, but
the placement of the front indicates trough position.