What's the difference between a longwave high pressure ridge and a shortwave high pressure ridge?

Question

Do you have a simple answer to this? Anytime I see these terms in the National Weather Service website, I have no idea what the h**l they're talking about in their scientific mumbo jumbo.

Answer 1

google...weather terms...  you'll get a pretty good idea, but it's not definitive.

Answer 2

To simplify the atmosphere...

The Polar jet follows a pattern that is more or less continuous around the northern hemisphere, and again in the southern Hemisphere.  The pattern it follows can loosely be correlated to the longwave pattern.  

Northward extensions in the long wave pattern are Ridges (northern hemisphere) and southward extensions are troughs (norther hemisphere).  

Migratory pressure systems (for the most part) follow the long wave pattern, although their true direction can cross it up to 15 degrees to the left of movement.

Short wave troughs and ridges are embedded within the long wave pattern.  They influence the weather in their immediate vicinity, where as long wave troughs and ridges influence the weather on a large scale basis.

Hope this info helps.

Answer 3

the length of the wave.