Every night at the end of the News the weatherman comes on and tells us the weather.
The obvious things that matter to Average Joe is the minimum and maximum temperatures as well as the general weather pattern (sunny, windy, rainy, etc) but they always go on about “low pressure systems”.
I’ve got a flight simulator and understand that the altimeter needs to be calibrated to the correct pressure but don’t really understand what that means outside of making sure the altimeter displays the correct altitude, and also I’ve got no idea why anyone who isn’t a pilot cares about the air pressure, or why it’s on the News.
In: Planetary Science
Air flows from high pressure to low pressure, that’s the most important take away.
More broadly, air will flow from a high pressure zone into a low pressure zone, and that air basically slams into itself and shoots upward this ends up making the air condense and form clouds. Which then leads to storms. Really extreme low-pressure zones are basically what cause hurricanes and tornados. The pressure is so low it sucks in a ton of air and does so very violently.
Personally, knowing where storms are more likely and where nice weather is more likely is the simple most important bit of information to me.
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