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New
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Year 7

Depressions

I can explain the weather associated with a depression.

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New
New
Year 7

Depressions

I can explain the weather associated with a depression.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Depressions are areas of low pressure where air is rising.
  2. Warm air and cold air meet at depressions causing changeable temperatures and rain.
  3. Depressions bring windy conditions shown by closely spaced isobars.
  4. Typically the passage of a depression over the UK can last between 1 and 5 days.

Keywords

  • Pressure - a force pushing or pressing on a given area

  • Air mass - a mass of air with the same levels of temperature, humidity, and pressure

  • Depression - an area of low pressure characterised by rain, wind and cloud

  • Front - a weather front is the boundary between a warm air mass and a cold air mass

Common misconception

The weather associated with an anticyclone stays the same all year around.

Students will analyse images to identify how anticyclones may bring different weather in the summer and winter.


To help you plan your year 7 geography lesson on: Depressions, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Students may remember the weather associated with depressions if you say "depressions are depressing, because it rains!"
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This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
What is weather?
Correct answer: the day-to-day conditions of the atmosphere at a particular place
the average weather conditions over 30 years
a type of moisture that falls from the sky
Q2.
What latitude has the warmest climate?
Arctic circle
Tropic of Cancer
Correct answer: Equator
Q3.
Which weather pattern is typically associated with calm conditions?
Correct answer: high pressure systems
low pressure systems
stormy pressure systems
Q4.
The UK is located in the __________ hemisphere.
Correct answer: northern
southern
eastern
western
Q5.
Rain, snow, hail and sleet are examples of ...
anticyclone
Correct answer: precipitation
evaporation
Q6.
What is an airmass?
Correct answer: air with the same levels of temperature, humidity, and pressure
a force pushing or pressing on a given thing
the boundary between warm and cold air

4 Questions

Q1.
Air is the force exerted by the weight (or mass) of the column of air above us.
Correct Answer: pressure
Q2.
Put these three sentences together to describe how pressure changes cause winds to blow.
1 - Pressure differences cause
2 - winds to blow.
3 - Air moves from areas of higher pressure
4 - to areas of lower pressure.
5 - The greater the pressure difference,
6 - the stronger the winds.
Q3.
form where cold and warm air masses collide. They are areas of low pressure where air is rising and bring unsettled weather.
Correct Answer: Depressions
Q4.
Which of these are features of depressions?
Correct answer: strong winds
Correct answer: rain
heatwaves
stable conditions