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What Are The Major Air Masses

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Air Masses

What are the Major Air Masses?

An air mass is a huge body of air in the lower atmosphere that has similar temperature, humidity, and air pressure at any given height. Four major types of air masses influenced the weather in North America: maritime tropical, continental tropical, maritime polar, and continental. Maritime air masses form over the ocean and can be very humid. Continental air masses form over land and drier than maritime air masses. Tropical air masses are warm, form in the tropics, and have low air pressure. Polar air masses are cold, form near the poles, and have high air pressure in North America, most air masses move from west to east. The jet stream is a band of high-speed wind about 10 km above the surface

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