East coast low

[NHsleder]

Ok, I'm a wanna be weather kinda guy and am looking to increase my understanding. What are the mechanics of a secondary low forming on the east coast? Keep it simple although I am an engineer and am up for the challenge. Thanks in advance for your info.

[tmagan]

Ok, I'm a wanna be weather kinda guy and am looking to increase my understanding. What are the mechanics of a secondary low forming on the east coast? Keep it simple although I am an engineer and am up for the challenge. Thanks in advance for your info.

Keep in mind, during the cool season there is a natural baroclinicity along the east coast with the cool temperatures over the land and the relatively warm waters off the eastern seaboard (especially the Gulf Stream). That temperature contrast, plus vorticity, helps create secondary low pressure along the east coast.

[NHsleder]

Thanks for your reply.Lets see if I get this right. The relatively warm conditions over the coastal waters are conducive to generating low pressure or lower pressure and that in turn becomes counter clockwise rotation?

Keep in mind, during the cool season there is a natural baroclinicity along the east coast with the cool temperatures over the land and the relatively warm waters off the eastern seaboard (especially the Gulf Stream). That temperature contrast, plus vorticity, helps create secondary low pressure along the east coast.

[tmagan]

Thanks for your reply.Lets see if I get this right. The relatively warm conditions over the coastal waters are conducive to generating low pressure or lower pressure and that in turn becomes counter clockwise rotation?

It is just not the warm waters in and of themselves, it is thermal contrast plus vorticity that generates low pressure which in the northern hemisphere means that the air around it rotates counterclockwise.

[loafnut]

The temperature difference has nothing directly to do with the rotation. The mechanics of the rotation of a low can be found here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect#Applied_to_Earth Its the combination of the pressure gradient force toward the center of the low, and the coriolis effect that results in rotation.

For a discussion on the mechanics of mid latitude storm systems, I recommend you read up on baroclinic instability and rossby waves. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rossby_wave http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroclinity

If you are an engineer with a couple fluid dynamics and thermodynamics courses under your belt, you should be able to understand.

[OKpowdah]

http://www.americanwx.com/bb/index.php?/topic/1415-miller-a-vs-miller-b/page__p__41426#entry41426

[NHsleder]

Thank you everyone for your input, I'm well on my way to more fully understanding why we get the Nor'easters that we do.

[Ed Lizard]

The KU monograph from AMS hs a wonderful primer beforethe section on the big snowstorms. Lower, mid, upper features. Cold and warm conveyor belt. Lots of stuff, most of it written in a way comprehensible to me, a non-met engineer