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Pressure gradient is the difference in pressure between one location and another. In meteorology, high pressure always flows to low pressure - but the difference in pressure from point A to point B is the pressure gradient. If there is a big pressure drop in a short distance, meteorologists refer to that as a “tight pressure gradient.” On the weather map, the pressure lines or “isobars” will be drawn very close together. This also indicates strong winds. You will commonly see lines drawn very close together during tropical systems such as hurricanes.

Imagine you have a balloon filled with air. If you squeeze that balloon, the side with the most air has “high pressure” while the side with less air has “low pressure”. If you gently release your hand you will notice that the side with high pressure (or the most air) will always flow toward the side with less air – as it tries to balance out. That’s exactly the way the atmosphere works!

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The air pressure is constantly changing in the atmosphere as we experience high pressure some days and low pressure on others. High pressure is usually associated with blue skies and sunshine while low pressure is associated with stormy weather.

J​ennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.