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Weather

Air Masses

Air Masses
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 5 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.78

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    maritime, continental, modification, especially, mass, winds, exchange, form, understand, cause, weather, eventually, part, moisture, earth, either
     content words:    North America, Caribbean Sea, North Pacific

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Air Masses
By Patti Hutchison 		  
1     To understand our constantly changing weather, you must know about air masses. An air mass is just what it sounds like. It is a large body of air. An air mass does not have a mind of its own. It takes on the traits of the area where it forms.
 
2     An air mass will form over either land or water. It will be dry or bring water with it. There are five types of air masses. They may be either continental polar, continental tropical, maritime polar, maritime tropical, or arctic. All five types are found in North America.
 
3     An air mass that forms over land is called continental. There are two types of continental air masses. Continental tropical air masses are hot and dry. The symbol for this kind of air mass is cT. They form over the deserts of the Southwest.

Paragraphs 4 to 8:
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