What is a ridge of high pressure?

Q: What is a ridge of high pressure?

A: A ridge of high pressure is a large area of warm air in the upper levels of the atmosphere. Under a ridge of high pressure you tend to see light winds, little cloud development; warm air holds back the clouds. More importantly, high pressure ridges lead to very warm temps and dry conditions like what we are experiencing this week and into early next week.

The figure below shows the current surface pattern, you can see the east is under a ridge of high pressure that is causing the storminess out west to go up and over the ridge of high pressure. This is the reason why we should have a dry weekend coming up.