weather forecast/prognoza pogody

czarnykotThreads: 21 Posts: 30 Joined: May 10, 08	Jul 24, 09, 11:15 / #
Hi there! I've got to grips with most of the vocab used in Polish weather forecasts and can read most forecasts in Polish (on websites, in newspapers etc) without much difficulty. BUT there is one word which frequently occurs and baffles me: zatoka. It often appears in phrases such as zatoka niżowa and zatoka niżu. Zatoka translates as bay or gulf, and niż in a weather context translates as a low or depression. I believe the following expressions translate as follows: układ niskiego ciśnienia = low pressure system klin niskiego ciśnienia = a trough of low pressure It looks as though zatoka niżowa is another expression for a trough of low pressure, that is, zatoka niżowa = klin niskiego ciśnienia, but I may well be mistaken. If there are any Polish weather forecasters out there who could help with the correct translations of zatoka niżowa and zatoka niżu I'd be most grateful. Many thanks in advance Pozdrawiam serdecznie, czarnykot

ZiemowitThreads: 10 Posts: 1,063 Joined: May 8, 09	Jul 24, 09, 13:21 / #
You are right. "Zatoka niżowa" denotes "zatoka niskiego ciśnienia". The difference between zatoka, klin and układ in meteorology may refer to the shapes of areas of low pressure. Zatoka (bay or gulf) may not be common among English-speaking meteorogists (or perhaps they it call it an "area of low pressure"?), while it is popular among Polish. But I'm not a meteorologist and my remarks are purely linguistic.

KrzysztofThreads: 2 Posts: 1,146 Joined: Jul 26, 07	Edited by: Krzysztof Jul 24, 09, 15:30 / #
from a Polish encyclopedia (PWN): zatoka niskiego ciśnienia - obszar obniżonego ciśn. atmosferycznego wciśnięty w obszar podwyższonego ciśnienia; stanowi odgałęzienie niżu atmosferycznego. klin wysokiego ciśnienia - obszar podwyższonego ciśnienia atmosferycznego leżący między 2 obszarami obniżonego ciśnienia; from Wikipedia (pl): Zatoka niskiego ciśnienia to peryferyjna część układu niżowego, którą na mapie pogody reprezentują izobary w kształcie litery "V". Klin wysokiego ciśnienia to peryferyjna część wyżu barycznego, w której izobary przyjmują wartość litery "U". So yes, it looks like klin and zatoka mean more or less the same, at least for a non-professional :) czarnykot: klin niskiego ciśnienia = a trough of low pressure In the PWN encyclopedia there's no such thing as "klin niskiego ciśnienia" only "klin wysokiego ciśnienia" and "zatoka niskiego ciśnienia". I guess Wikipedia explains the difference between "klin" and "zatoka" - it's about the shape of the isobars on the map, klin has a U shape, zatoka - V shape.