Sometimes I hear my weatherman refer to a "trough" and wonder why he's talking about feeding horses. He's not. He's actually referring to what?

A trough gets its name because it's an elongated area of low pressure that, in an atmospheric sense, could resemble a long, thin water receptacle. Typically a trough means there will be storminess or precipitation. The opposite of a trough is a ridge, an area of high pressure which results in nice weather.

Asked by Tom Cohen · Last updated 5 years ago · 3.8K views