Weather Tidbits: Maritime Tropical Air Mass

The maritime tropical air mass is explored in this Weather Tidbits. The maritime tropical air mass or mT is a warm, moist and unstable air mass. The air mass is also called subtropical air; which is associated with daily summer afternoon thunderstorms. When the air mass forms over Hawaii towards the West Coast; it’s refereed to as the Hawaiian Express bringing flooding rains & even snow for the West Coast. The air mass that originates from the Gulf of Mexico for the central and eastern United States; brings fog at times in the winter along with storms and slight cooling at night in the summer. A third area forms from the Gulf of California into the Southwest, bringing some high to mid-level clouds to monsoon rains.