Concept in Definition ABC

We hear the term anticyclone practically every day, since it is used very frequently in meteorological information. To understand it, it is necessary to previously explain what an isobar is. Isobar means line of equal pressure and on weather maps, high and low pressure areas appear on isobaric maps, which surround the entire globe.

Low pressures occur in tropical cyclones and the isobaric lines that indicate them are very close together (in cyclones the air rises and this produces instability that ends up causing a storm). Thus, a cyclone is simply a deep storm. The opposite effect is the anticyclone, which consists in that the air tends to descend, which causes the isobaric lines to be separated. This means that the anticyclone encourages warm air to rise from the water and this causes an increase in temperatures.

Squalls and anticyclones

Storms and anticyclones refer to the low and high pressures in the atmosphere. The presence of both makes it possible to determine what the weather will be. In this way, if a storm approaches, the weather will be unpleasant and rainy, while if an anticyclone approaches we will have sunny weather. Storms are areas of low pressure (less than 1016 millibars and accompanied by instability in the

weather). In contrast, anticyclones are areas of high pressure (greater than 1016 millibars and which are usually accompanied by sunny and stable weather).

Blocking anticyclones

Not all anticyclones have the same characteristics. There are, for example, so-called blocking anticyclones. They consist of the non-displacement of a storm due to the blocking action of an anticyclone. In this way, when a storm is blocked by an anticyclone, the storm tends to change direction.

Other common meteorology terms

The meteorology is a discipline scientific based on probability and through which an attempt is made to predict the weather as accurately and in advance as possible. In addition to cyclones, anticyclones and storms, there are other atmospheric phenomena. Thus, showers are the rains or precipitations, a tropical storm is the result of the development of a tropical cyclone and the phenomenon of the child is a sudden change in the movement of ocean currents.

The lexicon of meteorology is very vast and includes thousands of terms, as we must not forget that weather prediction involves factors very diverse, especially the temperature, humidity and pressure.

Photos: iStock - naffnaff / Grigory Fedyukovich

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