United Services Automobile Association (USAA) Oral Practice Test

Ridge is an elongated area of high pressure. In weather charts, it shows up as a stretched-out region of higher pressure (or higher geopotential heights in the upper atmosphere), where air tends to sink. This subsidence suppresses cloud formation, leading to settled, often warmer and drier conditions. It contrasts with troughs, which are elongated areas of lower pressure that encourage rising air and more unsettled weather. A ridge isn’t a line of equal humidity or a slow-moving cold front, but rather the high-pressure stretch that shapes the weather pattern in that area.