Grg 301K Exam 4 Notes

Front 1

What are haboobs and dust devils?

Back 1

Can cause desert winds due to intense heating and heat/pressure gradient change

Front 2

An Eddy is...

Back 2

When you walk around the corner and get hit with a gust of wind; caused by turbulence

Front 3

A wind shear is a rapid change of in wind direction AND/OR speed i a small period of time/area.

Back 3

True

Front 4

What are the 5 types of North American air masses?

Back 4

Arctic, Maritime Polar, Maritime Tropical, Continental Polar, Continental Tropical

Front 5

When dealing with air masses, weather forecasting is the practice of knowing ___

Back 5

Where they are and when they're there

Front 6

Arctic air mass characteristics include:

Back 6

Being the driest; very cold, heavy, originating above Canada in Arctic Circle

Front 7

Maritime originates over ____, while Continental originates over _______

Back 7

Oceans, land

Front 8

Continental polar characteristics include:

Back 8

Originating around Canada & Alaska, being dry and cold but not as much as the Arctic

Front 9

Maritime polar characteristics include:

Back 9

Originating over West Coast/Eastern seaboard; chilly; moist; THINK SEATTLE

Front 10

Maritime tropical characteristics include:

Back 10

Huge, tropical Pacific/Atlantic Basin

Front 11

Contintental tropical charactersitics include:

Back 11

Hottest, driest, and smallest air mass between Sierra Madres and Texas (bigger one means more drought)

Front 12

Weather patterns are not dependent upon upper level atmosphere.

Back 12

False

Front 13

Cyclones rotate ______

Back 13

counterclockwise

Front 14

What happens when air masses are changing and the front approaches?

Back 14

Pressure drops, and then goes back up once the air mass arrives again

Front 15

The Dry Line is a front.

Back 15

False

Front 16

The dry line has 4 charactersitics and they are:

Back 16

1. Boundary between mT and cT

2. Origin in SW U.S/ Northern Mexico

3. Found most commonly in Plains states (Texas and northward)

4. When moving eastward will cause scale lift and possibly cause thunderstorms

Front 17

Satellite data is found 23,000 miles above Earth's surface and includes:

Back 17

Infrared, Visible Imagery, and Water vapor data

Front 18

Visible imagery is not monochrome and uses sunlight.

Back 18

False

Front 19

GOES West:

Back 19

135 W Longitude, above Equator, from Rockies to East Asia

Front 20

GOES East:

Back 20

35 W Longitude, above Equator, from Africa to Cali

Front 21

Is there a 3rd GOES just in case one goes out in orbit between the functional ones?

Back 21

Yes

Front 22

Thunderstorms usually have really ___ tops

Back 22

Cold

Front 23

Water vapor imagery depicts mid and high level moisture better than low-level moisture

Back 23

True

Front 24

Contrail would be found in Odessa or Arizona pic?

Back 24

Odessa because there is more moisture in air in Odessa causing the excess to be kicked out

Front 25

When dealing with Doppler data, there is:

Back 25

Reflectivity/Velocity data, range with height, cone of silence, dual polarity, & clear air vs. precipitation mode

Front 26

Humans can augment these, while ASOS/AWOS can't

Back 26

Hail, tornadoes, sleet, snow depth, t'storms

Front 27

Weather observations are taken at 1000's of locations around the world hourly by 3 methods:

Back 27

Automated, auto/manual combo, manual

Front 28

METARs are coded aviation weather observations from surface that are transmitted globally at least hourly

Back 28

True

Front 29

Radio/Rawinsonde:

Back 29

Lifted by baloon twice a day for 60-90 mins up to 100,000 ft. usually at 6-7am and 6-7pm; measures temp, wind speed, pressure, humidity

Front 30

WMO is the...

Back 30

World Meteorlogical Orginization that exhcnages info worldwide for weather to ensure accuracy

Front 31

AMS and NWA are voluntary organizations that regulate weather in US

Back 31

Both voluntary with AMS being more academic and NWS more operational

Front 32

Weather watches/advisories/warnings come from NWA

Back 32

False

Front 33

Weather watch:

Back 33

LArge area, 4-6 hours to 24-48 hours, conditions are good for weather to happen but nothing's happened yet

Front 34

Weather advisory:

Back 34

Medium area, 6-24 hours, weather is imminent or occurring, inconvenient but not deadly yet

Front 35

Weather warning:

Back 35

Smallest area, 1-1.5 hours, weather is imminent or occurring and immediate threat to life/property

Front 36

Analogue method forecasting looks back at previous weather archives, a con is that:

Back 36

Not all systems are the same

Front 37

Numerical weather forecasting:

Back 37

If bad data is put in you'll get it back and models have certain biases even though it's mathematical and runs 1-4 times a day

Front 38

Precipitation forecasting:

Back 38

20% x 50=1000 which is a 10.00% chance of PCP

Front 39

the 4 types of thunderstorms are

Back 39

Multicell Lines, Multicell clusters, Supercells, and single Cells

Front 40

Non-severe tstorms are found on the boundaries of mT while severe ones are found within mT.

Back 40

false

Front 41

50 knots/58mph is the limit for non-severe tstorms while the opposite it true for severe ones.

Back 41

True

Front 42

Why does lightning form?

Back 42

As a resut of separation of charges created due to the presence of ice crystals and cloud droplets in strong up/downdrafts

Front 43

Lightning can get up to 54,000 F, or 5 times as hot as the sun.

Back 43

True

Front 44

Largest hail oftern falls NE of tornadoes.

Back 44

True

Front 45

Hail:

Back 45

Most frequent inn central and southern Plains states NW towards front range of Rockies; greater than 1" is severe

Front 46

Straight line thunderstorm winds consist of micro and macrobursts, which are:

Back 46

less than 2.5 mi in diameter/larger than 2.5 mi in diameter; they are also divergent wind patterns