Maybe you can ELI7 because I’ve taken three college level physics courses but I just don’t get this: where do temperature and pressure changes come from that are so powerful we get 50mph+ gusts? Why don’t those differences just disperse outward and equalize from wherever they’re generated? How can I be standing on one side of my yard and a gust of wind be displacing the trees 30ft away???
In: Physics
The way I’d explain it to a five year old? They *are* evening out just like you said. All over the world, the pressure is trying to reach equilibrium and a bunch of factors keep things moving. Temperature is a major factor. Heat makes pressure.
They do equalize outward from where they are generated. They get generated in areas with stark temperature differences, typically lakes or mountains, or as a result of weather (like rain). Water’s high heat capacity means it doesn’t change temperature as quickly as land, so air passing over it gets heated (or cooled) depending on solar intensity and time of day (a lake will stay warm at night but the ground wont).
So these systems are created over large bodies of water typically, radiate outward, but given the size of them “outward” tends to be well across the nearest landmass, while the other radial side goes out to sea and dissipates over a distance. And if not much is there to bump into it then the wavefront doesn’t really get stopped by much.
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