Is air rising or sinking in areas of high pressure?
1 Answer
Sinking air produces high pressure systems
Explanation:
As air sinks the molecules of oxygen and nitrogen get squished together and so the pressure increases. As this happens, the air molecules tend to heat up as well so the air gets warmer. This is why in the summer when you have clear blue skies and warm or hot temperatures, this is almost always due to a high pressure system.
High pressure systems are almost always linked to low pressure systems. As the air gets pushed towards the ground in a high pressure area, it has to come up somewhere else - this is called a low pressure system and is usually associated with cloudy, rainy weather.
If high pressure systems get stuck and don't move along, it can produce a heat wave that can cause many heat related deaths.
