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32 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is humidity and relative humidity?
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Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air. Relative humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air compared to how much water vapor the air can hold in different temperatures.
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What is the dew point?
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The temperature at which air is saturated.
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What is frost and how does it form.
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When the dew point temperature is below freezing, tiny ice crystals called frost can form.
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What are hygrometers and psychrometers?
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They are both devices to measure humidity. A hygrometer stretches a strand of human hair between two points, and when the air gets more humid the hair swells. A psychrometer is the thing you spin with a wet bulb and dry bulb.
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How are clouds classified, and what are the names for the different classifications of clouds?
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Clouds are classified by height and appearance. When they are classified by appearance, they are called either stratus, cumulus, or cirrus clouds. When they're classified by height, cirro means high. alto means middle, and strato means low.
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Describe the three appearance classifications of clouds.
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Cirrus are thin and wispy, cumulus are puffy, and stratus are wide spread.
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Describe the chart on page 437.
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Cirrus is just above 6 km, and cirrostratus are a bit below 6 km. Alsostratus are above 4 km and altocumulus are at 3 km. Cumulonimbus are at 2 km, and cumulus are a bit above 1 km. Stratus are below 1 km and nimbostratus are at about .5 km.
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What is a cumulonimbus cloud?
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A rain bearing cloud.
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What are the three types of fog? Describe them all.
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The three types of fog are advection, steam, and radiation. Radiation is warm air getting cold, advection is warm water air moving over land, and steam is the opposite of advection.
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What is precipitaion? How is precipitation formed?
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Precipitation is any form of moisture that falls from a cloud to the ground. When water vapor in a cloud condenses onto condensation nuclei, a cloud droplet forms.
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What are the types of precipitation?
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Raim. sleet, snow, hail, and freezing rain.
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What measures rainfall?
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A rain guage.
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What is a snowpack?
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A snowpack is the amount of snow that will melt and flow into rivers.
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How much snow is equal to how much rain?
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10 cm. of snow is = to 1 cm. of rain.
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What are the different air masses?
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One of six different types of weather conditions in a given area are: continental polar, continental tropical, maritime polar, maritime tropical, equatorial, and arctic.
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What does an air mass do?
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It goes to one area, picks up the characteristics of that area, then travels and brings the characteristic to the next area.
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What is a front?
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The boundary where two air masses come together.
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What happens at a cold front?
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At a cold front, a cold and warm air mass collide and the cold air mass forces its way underneath the warm air mass. Strong gusts of wind and rain often occur, and huge cumulonimbus clouds form. Also, the warm air is pushed upward.
[cold fronts move quickly] |
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What happens at warm front?
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A warm front forms when warm, less dense air mass overtakes a cold, dense air mass. Cloudy skies and rain or snow usually form.
[warm fronts move slowly] |
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What are stationary and occluded fronts?
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The boundary between two nonmoving air masses is called a stationary front. When acold front overtakes a warm front, an occluded front forms. ((both symbols on the same side))
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What measures air pressure in what unit of measurement?
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A barometer, in millibars.
[isobars = air pressure] [isotherms = temperature] |
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What causes wind?
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Uneven heating/cooling of the earth leads to changes in pressure which leads to wind, because air moves from high to low pressure.
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What is a cyclonic wind pattern?
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A counterclockwise wind pattern that surrounds a low pressure area, creating hurricans and major winter storms; caused by Coriolis effect.
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What does low pressure mean?
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Bad weather.
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What is an anticyclonic wind pattern?
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Air, rushing away from a high pressure center, creates a clockwise wind pattern, resulting in warm sunny weather.
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What is the coriolis effect?
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The coriolis force is caused by earth's rotation, and pushes winds to the right in N. hemisphere and left in S. hemisphere.
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How does a thunderstorm form?
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A thunderstorm forms when masses of warm, moist air move rapidly upward. The moisture in the air condenses to become a cloud.
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What is a hurricane?
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A tropical storm with winds of at least 120 km; forms over tropial water, rotates counterclockwise around low pressure center
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What is a tornado?
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A tornado is a whirling, funnel-shaped windstorm.
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What data do meteorologists need to collect in order to make a weather forecast?
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temperature, precipitation, air pressure, and wind
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What sources of weather prediction are there?
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Satellited, radar, balloons, and stations
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In a station model:
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shading= cloud cover, top right number is atmospheric pressure in millibars, barbs show windspeed and direction, icon shows eather, and top left number is temperature.
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