Meteorology: Weather Factors
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14 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 anemometer | a device used for measuring wind speed |
| barometer | instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure |
| front | the boundary between two air masses |
| hurricane | a severe storm that develops over tropical oceans and whose strong winds of more than 120 km/h spiral in toward the intensely low-pressure storm center |
| thermometer | an instrument for measuring temperature |
| greenhouse effect | the natural situation in which heat is retained in Earth's atmosphere by carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and other gases |
| thunder | the sound produced by rapidly expanding air along the path of a lightning discharge |
| lightning | a sudden spark, or energy discharge, caused when electrical charges jump between parts of a cloud, between nearby clouds, or between a cloud and the ground. |
| relative humidity | percentage of water vapor that is actually in the air compared to the maximum amount of water vapor the air can hold at a particular temperature |
| wind | horizontal movement of air from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure |
| tornado | a rapidly whirling, funnel-shaped cloud that reaches down from a storm cloud to touch Earth's surface |
| humidity | amount of water vapor in the atmosphere |
| air pressure | the measure of the force with which air molecules push on a surface. |
| air mass | a large body of air with relatively uniform pressure, temperature, and humidity |
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