The Continental Divide has a tremendous impact on weather in North America and even as far away as Norway. Situated in the western half of North America running north and south, the Continental Divide creates a wall that moisture rich prevailing winds from the west continually bunch up against. As the pressure of packed moist air continues to build, the prevailing winds carry the energy up the western side of the divide allowing the system to build until it is released to the east to dump its contents over the landscape. Another weather phenomena can occur as well where the weather system stalls at the top of the divide and continues to drop precipitation over the mountain range. One such incident is described by a research team as, “On 16-17
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These snowbands have been observed and studied since 1978 and researchers wanted to understand how the upstream terrain of the Continental Divide, mainly the Rockies, affected the occurrence and intensity of the major and minor bands of …show more content…
This research is important, like all weather/climatology research is, because it impacts our world in so many different ways. For instance, as the winter months start to come to a close, the Rockies, which have possibly helped to wreak havoc to the east by aiding the growth of cold weather systems and precipitation, helps to now create a warm wind called “Chinook winds”. These winds provide a number of benefits as they blow warmer air over the snow covered plains helping to melt the snow cover, provide energy production through the many wind farms in the plain states, allow for the cultivation of land, etc. If research shows that the bands of weather are indeed influenced by the divide, then with today’s weather modeling programs and data, we would better be able to predict when such weather phenomena might
These snowbands have been observed and studied since 1978 and researchers wanted to understand how the upstream terrain of the Continental Divide, mainly the Rockies, affected the occurrence and intensity of the major and minor bands of …show more content…
This research is important, like all weather/climatology research is, because it impacts our world in so many different ways. For instance, as the winter months start to come to a close, the Rockies, which have possibly helped to wreak havoc to the east by aiding the growth of cold weather systems and precipitation, helps to now create a warm wind called “Chinook winds”. These winds provide a number of benefits as they blow warmer air over the snow covered plains helping to melt the snow cover, provide energy production through the many wind farms in the plain states, allow for the cultivation of land, etc. If research shows that the bands of weather are indeed influenced by the divide, then with today’s weather modeling programs and data, we would better be able to predict when such weather phenomena might