Pressure is what it's all about really. Pressure determines wind direction, wind speed, if the wind is cold or warm and many other factors. There is low pressure, which is like a valley or a gully of a mountain range. And if you think of air like the water on a mountain range, air flows into low pressure. There are two types of low pressure you will see on a synoptic map presented on the evening news. A trough, which is a dashed line, and a circle, which is where air circles around a low-pressure point. High pressure is where air flows away, or like a mountain, it is like the top of the mountain for water. Another part of a high-pressure system is a ridge, like a long narrow stretch of land at a high point on a mountain. High pressure brings stable air and fine conditions in general. Low pressure brings strong winds and generates storms as air lifts off the ground up high into the air.