 | Term | Definition |
| |
weather |
the short term state of the atmosphere |
| |
humidity |
the amount of water vapor in the air |
| |
air tempater |
an increase in what allows the air to hold more water |
| |
relative humidity |
the mount of water vapor in the air to the maxium amount of water vapor the air can hold at a set temperature |
| |
relativie humidity |
=present water vapor/saturated water vapor |
| |
condensation |
the change state from a gas to a liquid or solid |
| |
dew point |
the tempature at which a gas condenses to a liquid |
| |
100% |
air is saturated at what percent relative humidity |
| |
cloud |
what is a collection of small water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air which forms when the air is cooled nad condensation occurs |
| |
cumulus clouds |
puffy white clouds that tend to have flat bottoms |
| |
(nimbo) |
means that precipitation might fall from the cloud |
| |
stratus cloud |
form in layers that cover large areas of the sky |
| |
cirrus cloud |
thin feathery white clouds formed at high alititudes |
| |
alto- |
prefix for middle clouds |
| |
precipation |
any form of water that falls to the Earths surface |
| |
sleet |
what forms when rain falls to a layuer of freezing air |
| |
air masses |
changes in weather are caused by movement and interaction of what> |
| |
air mass |
a large body of air where tempature and moisture content are constant throughout |
| |
maritime(m) |
forms over water:wet |
| |
COntinental(c) |
forms over land:dry |
| |
polar(P) |
forms over polear regions:cold |
| |
tropical(T) |
developes over tropics:warm |
| |
front |
the doundary between air masses of different densities and usually different tempatures |
| |
cold front |
forms when cold air moves under warm air which is less dense and pushes air up (produces thunderstorms heavy rain or snow |
| |
warm front |
forms when warm air mass is caught between two colder air masses |
| |
stationary front |
forms when a cold air mass meets a warm air mass and no movement occurs |
| |
anticuclone |
the rotation of air around a high pressure center in the direction opposite to earths rotation |
| |
they can help predict stormy or clear whaether |
why do meteorolgists track them |
| |
servere weather |
weather that can cause property damage opr even death |
| |
thunderstorms |
air near surface must be warm and moist atmosphere must be unstable |
| |
lightning |
electric discharge that takes place between tornadoses |
| |
tornadoes |
destructive rotating column of air that has very high wind speeds visible as a funnel shpaed cloud that touches the ground |
| |
hurricane |
serve storm that developse over tropical oceans and whose strong winds of more than 120km/h spiral in toward the intensely low pressyre storm center &is the most powerful storm on Earth |
| |
weather forcasting |
prediction of weather conditions over teh next 3 to 5 days |
| |
meteorologists |
observe and collect data on current weater conditions in order to provide reliable predictions |
| |
thermometer |
an instrument that measures and indicates tempature |
| |
barometer |
an insturment that measures atmosphereic pressure |
| |
anenmometer |
instrument used to meause wind speed |
| |
radar |
is used to find location movement and intestity of precipataion |
| |
station model |
a small circle which shows the location of the waether station |
| |
isobars |
lines that connect points of equual air pressure |
