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Humidity Differences
> name Carol
> status other
> age 50s
> Question - What causes humidity to be so high in areas such as
> Baltimore and lower in areas such as Maine or New England States?
>Carol,
>
>The further north, the more likely that moist air
>from the Gulf of Mexico or the gulfstream Atlantic
>will not reach you. Baltimore and other coastal
>locations are more likely to be humid because of
>the proximity of the ocean (this can be true even
>along the coastline of Maine during a Bermuda high
>pressure event). However, high pressure areas
>centered off of the east coast allow large amounts
>of water vapor to accumulate, particularly in the
>southeastern and middle Atlantic states, and along
>the seaboard as wet air blows in off of the ocean.
>More inland and northern areas receive mostly
>continental air (from the landmass) and this air
>has not normally accumulated as much moisture.
>
>You can get an idea of the amount of moisture in
>the atmosphere by looking at an infrared water vapor
>satellite view at either the Intellicast or Weather
>Channel web sites. The water vapor shown is
>throughout the depth of the atmosphere, but most
>water vapor is in the lowest level, the Troposphere,
>where we live.
>
>David Cook
>meteorologist at Argonne Nat. Lab.
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