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46 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
What are haboobs and dust devils? |
Can cause desert winds due to intense heating and heat/pressure gradient change |
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An Eddy is... |
When you walk around the corner and get hit with a gust of wind; caused by turbulence |
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A wind shear is a rapid change of in wind direction AND/OR speed i a small period of time/area. |
True |
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What are the 5 types of North American air masses? |
Arctic, Maritime Polar, Maritime Tropical, Continental Polar, Continental Tropical |
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When dealing with air masses, weather forecasting is the practice of knowing ___ |
Where they are and when they're there |
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Arctic air mass characteristics include: |
Being the driest; very cold, heavy, originating above Canada in Arctic Circle |
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Maritime originates over ____, while Continental originates over _______ |
Oceans, land |
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Continental polar characteristics include: |
Originating around Canada & Alaska, being dry and cold but not as much as the Arctic |
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Maritime polar characteristics include: |
Originating over West Coast/Eastern seaboard; chilly; moist; THINK SEATTLE |
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Maritime tropical characteristics include: |
Huge, tropical Pacific/Atlantic Basin |
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Contintental tropical charactersitics include: |
Hottest, driest, and smallest air mass between Sierra Madres and Texas (bigger one means more drought) |
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Weather patterns are not dependent upon upper level atmosphere. |
False |
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Cyclones rotate ______ |
counterclockwise |
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What happens when air masses are changing and the front approaches? |
Pressure drops, and then goes back up once the air mass arrives again |
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The Dry Line is a front. |
False |
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The dry line has 4 charactersitics and they are: |
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 |
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Satellite data is found 23,000 miles above Earth's surface and includes: |
Infrared, Visible Imagery, and Water vapor data |
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Visible imagery is not monochrome and uses sunlight. |
False |
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GOES West: |
135 W Longitude, above Equator, from Rockies to East Asia |
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GOES East: |
35 W Longitude, above Equator, from Africa to Cali |
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Is there a 3rd GOES just in case one goes out in orbit between the functional ones? |
Yes |
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Thunderstorms usually have really ___ tops |
Cold |
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Water vapor imagery depicts mid and high level moisture better than low-level moisture |
True |
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Contrail would be found in Odessa or Arizona pic? |
Odessa because there is more moisture in air in Odessa causing the excess to be kicked out |
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When dealing with Doppler data, there is: |
Reflectivity/Velocity data, range with height, cone of silence, dual polarity, & clear air vs. precipitation mode |
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Humans can augment these, while ASOS/AWOS can't |
Hail, tornadoes, sleet, snow depth, t'storms |
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Weather observations are taken at 1000's of locations around the world hourly by 3 methods: |
Automated, auto/manual combo, manual |
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METARs are coded aviation weather observations from surface that are transmitted globally at least hourly |
True |
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Radio/Rawinsonde: |
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 |
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WMO is the... |
World Meteorlogical Orginization that exhcnages info worldwide for weather to ensure accuracy |
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AMS and NWA are voluntary organizations that regulate weather in US |
Both voluntary with AMS being more academic and NWS more operational |
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Weather watches/advisories/warnings come from NWA |
False |
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Weather watch: |
LArge area, 4-6 hours to 24-48 hours, conditions are good for weather to happen but nothing's happened yet |
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Weather advisory: |
Medium area, 6-24 hours, weather is imminent or occurring, inconvenient but not deadly yet |
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Weather warning: |
Smallest area, 1-1.5 hours, weather is imminent or occurring and immediate threat to life/property |
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Analogue method forecasting looks back at previous weather archives, a con is that: |
Not all systems are the same |
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Numerical weather forecasting: |
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 |
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Precipitation forecasting: |
20% x 50=1000 which is a 10.00% chance of PCP |
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the 4 types of thunderstorms are |
Multicell Lines, Multicell clusters, Supercells, and single Cells |
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Non-severe tstorms are found on the boundaries of mT while severe ones are found within mT. |
false |
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50 knots/58mph is the limit for non-severe tstorms while the opposite it true for severe ones. |
True |
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Why does lightning form? |
As a resut of separation of charges created due to the presence of ice crystals and cloud droplets in strong up/downdrafts |
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Lightning can get up to 54,000 F, or 5 times as hot as the sun. |
True |
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Largest hail oftern falls NE of tornadoes. |
True |
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Hail: |
Most frequent inn central and southern Plains states NW towards front range of Rockies; greater than 1" is severe |
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Straight line thunderstorm winds consist of micro and macrobursts, which are: |
less than 2.5 mi in diameter/larger than 2.5 mi in diameter; they are also divergent wind patterns |