Chapter 7 Flashcards
Weather
Temperature, precipitation, air pressure, humidity, wind speed.
Subtropical, Hot Desert
High temperatures
Warm soils; grasses, shrubs and succulents
Whether and climate is predicted when?
Snapshot
Long term
Air mass
Body of air usually referred by region.
Ex: North America, maritime tropical, continental tropical, maritime polar, and continental polar.
Air mass includes conditions such as,
Temperature
Humidity
Stability
Weather patterns can occur,
When two different air push against each other but don’t mix.
Moister
maritime [wet] Over water
continental [dry] Over land
Continental Polar (P)
Where?
When?
Latitude?
Weather?
N. Hemisphere only
Most developed in the winter
Middle- to high-latitude weather
Dense, cold air displaces moist, warm air, lifting and cooling this warm air
Cold, stable air, clear skies, high pressure
Maritime Polar (mP)
Where?
Weather?
What happens?
Sit over northern oceans
Cool, moist, unstable, low pressure
West: heavy rains as cool, moist air flows over mountains East: not as developed as the west
Maritime Tropical (mT)
Gulf/Atlantic
Extremely unstable, high energy, moist, a lot of rain from late spring to early Fall
Maritime Tropical (mT)
Pacific
Stable to conditionally stable, lower in moisture and energy, low average precipitation compared to mT Gulf/Atlantic
Air Madd Modification
Air masses move to another region then the temperature changes when going into another region.
Convergent Lifting
Occurs when streams of air flowing into a low-pressure area collide and are pushed upward
Convectional Lifting
When solar energy passes through the atmosphere and heats the surface, where the air becomes less dense than the air around it, making it rise.
Orographic Lifting
Changes to airflow when the elevated terrain, such as mountains, forces air upward.
Frontal Lifting
When the air masses collide, the colder air masses will have a higher density, and the warmer air masses will have a lower density
Cold front
Cold air that pushes under a mass of warm air.
Causes precipitation, thunderstorms, and tornadoes
Warm Front
Forms when a relatively moist, warm air mass slides up and over a cold air mass.
Ice Storms and Blizzards
Blizzards
Mid- to high-latitude regions
Occurs when a layer of warm air is between 2 layers of cold
As rain falls through warm layer, sleet can form (freezing rain)
Blizzards - snowstorms with high winds
Thunderstorm Basics
Lightening and thunder, and high wind speeds
May develop within an air mass, in a line along a front, or mountain slopes
Thunderstorm Formation
- Warm air moves upward, cools to form clouds.
- Energy is released due to latent heat from condensation, creating powerful upward current.
- Water droplets grow and ice particles also form in the cold creating downdrafts.
When and where is a tornado common?
Central US, OK/TX
Spring and summer
Tropical Cyclones
Hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones
The warmer the ocean and atmosphere…
The more intense.
Tornado
A funnel cloud is formed extending from a
thunderstorm.
Predicting a tornato
Predicting a tornado is difficult.
Satellites/Doppler
When there is a hook: 15-30 minute warning
Enhanced Fujita Scale
Enhanced Fujita Scale
How a tornado is measured and labeled.
Turbulence
Created by mixing of different air densities or by layers of air moving at different speeds and directions
Wind sheer
Extreme and sudden variation in wind speed (and direction)
High wind sheer (extreme/sudden variation)
Hail and tornadoes lightening (build up of electrical energy) and thunder (shock waves)
North America
Hurricanes
West Pacific, Japan, Philippines
Typhoons
Indonesia, India, Bangladesh
Cyclones
