CORS 220: HW#4: Weather, you like it or not


Your fourth homework assignment of the semester will involve researching and explaining the combination of factors that account for the type of weather being experienced by your hometown on some particular day. You may simply consider Moscow, Idaho, if you wish or if you are not from the United States. Extreme weather is ultimately responsible for many of the disasters in the United States, including hurricanes, tornadoes, wind gusts, downbursts, high rainfall, flooding, landslides, drought, wildfires, heat waves, ice storms, blizzards, storm waves, storm surges, and so on. In order to be better prepared for such hazards, we need to have a basic comprehension of the factors that come into play in controlling our weather on a day to day basis.

For this exercise, I would like you to examine the weather conditions that exist in a particular region on a particular day within the next 10 days, and use what you have learned in this class to explain those weather conditions. You must submit some sort of weather map that shows:

A. The conditions across the entire country; and
B. A zoomed-in map of the regional conditions in your selected area.

Both maps should show the locations of high and low pressure areas and weather fronts, and can be obtained from the website of your choice (possible sources include noaa.gov: the website for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and weather.com). Along with your maps, you should include a paragraph or two explaining the weather maps and providing a commentary on what you think is controlling the weather in your selected region on that particular day. You should be discussing and considering the following factors:

(1) the distribution of high and low pressure systems.
(2) the expected direction of wind motion (with explanations).
(3) the presence of warm or cold fronts and its effect on local temperatures (with explanations).
(4) the outlook for weather in the coming days.
(5) any other factors, such as the seasonal fluctuations in the polar jet stream or La Niña effects, etc.

Please ensure that you state explicitly which day you selected to make your observations. If your selection is Moscow, Idaho, I would like you to use personal observations of weather conditions, such as the direction that you noticed the wind blowing and whether it agreed with your expectations based on your analysis of the weather maps. As always, list all references to the sources of your information. The report should be in 10-12 point font, with 1" margins. It will be graded on content, not length.

This report will be worth 20 points.

PROJECT DUE DATE: Thursday, November 18th (hand in during class).







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