1 .		Surface weather data such as temperature, precipitation, current weather, station pressure, and wind speed and direction is reported hourly from places like airports and automated weather stations. This data is compiled and plotted onto different types of maps in order to analyze what is happening in the atmosphere. This is a map of surface data for North America on January 5, 1997. The thick blue lines are cold fronts and the thick red lines are warm fronts. The overlain radar image indicates the rate of precipitation, with light blue being the lightest and dark red being the heaviest. As shown in the legends above, the weather at many sites can be determined from the coding. As shown in this example, the air temperature is in the upper left corner, the dewpoint in the lower left corner, wind direction is given by the direction toward which the the thin white stick is pointing, and the wind speed by the number of barbs on the stick.[Map Source] The weather map depicts a very strong storm system across the Midwest. First, locate the warm front and the cold fronts. Near which front is most of the precipitation occurring? Is most of the precipitation occurring ahead of, along, or behind the north-south oriented cold front? Given the temperatures, is most of this precipitation falling as snow or rain? Which areas do you think are receiving snow? Where is the heaviest precipitation occurring and why is it probably located here (hint: consider the moisture source region and wind direction)? Is the wind direction around the cyclone center consistent with what you would expect from theory? What type of air mass is probably moving in behind the cold front in the northern plains? What type of air mass is probably moving in behind the warm front?   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.