Vocab Ch. 16 Flashcards
Humidity
The amount of water vapor in the air.
Relative humidity
The ratio of the amount of water vapor in the air to the maximum amount of water vapor the air can hold at a set temperature.
Condensation
Hot change of state from a gas to a liquid.
Cloud
A collection of small water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air, which forms when the air is cooled and condensation occurs.
Precipitation
Any form of water that falls to the hearths surface from the clouds.
Air mass
A large body of air where temperature and moisture content are throughout.
Front
The boundary between air masses of different densities and usually different temperatures.
Cyclone
An area in the atmosphere that has lower pressure then The surrounding areas and has winds that spiral towards the center.
Anticyclone
The rotation of air around a high-pressure center in the direction opposite to earths rotation.
Thunderstorm
A usually brief, heavy storm that consists of rain, strong winds, lightning, and thunder.
Lightning
And electric discharge that takes place between two oppositely charge surfaces, such as between a cloud and the ground, between two clouds, or between two parts of the same cloud.
Thunder
The Suns caused by the rapid expansion of air along an electrical strike.
Tornado
A destructive, rotating column of air that has very high wind speeds, is visible as a funnel-shaped cloud, and touches the ground.
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 that measures and indicates temperature.
