What is the difference between low and high air pressure

When you step outside and take a deep breath of fresh air, you probably don't feel much pressure bearing down on you from the sky. Air doesn't exactly seem like a 'heavy' element. However, the atmosphere contains many different types of gases all stacked together, and those gases exert pressure.

Though you might not be able to feel that pressure, the layers of gas in the atmosphere exert nearly 15 pounds of pressure on your body! The amount of air pressure in any given location on earth isn't the exact same.

Air pressure varies based on where you are, and different areas have different air pressure levels. This results in high and low pressure systems and impacts the weather in a region. When you see a weather forecast, you might see the standard low pressure system symbol — a red 'L. The higher density air around the low pressure system moves into the area of lower pressure, resulting in a suction-like effect with the air rising in the center.

Typically, low pressure system characteristics involve undesirable weather. Sign Up Log In. Dashboard Logout. Food Things to Do What the Tech? If it continues to cool, it may develop into rain or snow, under favourable conditions. The low pressure regions experience strong winds, cloudy skies, rain, snow, and unpredictable changes in the weather. At the sections closer to the ground, the air of the cyclone tends to spiral inwards, with the help of the rotation of the earth.

If the pressure becomes sufficiently low, these winds can develop into a storm or hurricane. Therefore, cyclones are related to storms that originate from low pressure systems. A high pressure system is a region in the atmosphere where the air is sinking.

The other names for these systems include highs or anticyclones. Anticyclones are descending air after getting cooled in the upper atmosphere. The temperature of the gas increases as the relative humidity decreases. As a result, the water in the air mass vaporizes, creating dry weather conditions.

High pressure regions create calm and unchanging weather. Physically, it seems to make sense to have air flow from high pressure to low pressure. The opposite occurs with high pressure. The surface flow is accompanied by the opposite behavior at upper levels of the atmosphere, as depicted in this schematic diagram:.

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