Weather Flashcards
1
Q
Continental Polar
A
- cold, dense
- displaces warm air in path (lifting cooling condensation)
2
Q
Winter cP
A
- cold, stable air, clear skies
- high pressure, anticyclonic wind-flow
3
Q
Maritime Polar
A
- cool moist
- unstable conditions
- over most Northern oceans
4
Q
Maritime Tropical: Gulf/Atlantic
A
-unstable and active from late spring to early fall
5
Q
Maritime Tropical: Pacific
A
- stable to conditionally unstable
- lower in moisture content than other mT zones
6
Q
Convective Air Lifting
A
- warm air rises
- warmer surfaces, due to local heating
7
Q
Orographic Air Lifting
A
-forced over physical barrier
8
Q
Convergent/Cyclonic Air Lifting
A
- low pressure, air convergence
- cools air and condensation occurs
9
Q
Frontal Air Lifting
A
-air is lifted at frontal boundary
10
Q
Front
A
- narrow, defined boundary between two contrasting air masses
- warm, cold, occluded, stationary
11
Q
Cold Front
A
- led by cold air mass
- forces warm air aloft
- 400 km wide
- follow by precipitation
12
Q
Warm Front
A
- led by warm air mass
- forced to rise over cool air
- 1 000 km wide
- drizzling ahead of front
13
Q
Occluded Front
A
- warm air is caught between two cold fronts
- forced upwards
- low pressure areas, strong winds and heavy precipitation
14
Q
Stationary Front
A
- neither mass move (cold vs. warm)
- 50 to 100 km
- cloud and precipitation
- temperature and wind different on either side
- dissipates or moves forward
15
Q
Mid-latitude Cyclone: Stage One
A
- cyclogenesis
- convergence of warm and cold air
16
Q
Mid-latitude Cyclone: Stage Two
A
- open stage
- warm air forced North, cool air forced south
- warm air was sucked in from the south and shot out to the north
17
Q
Mid-latitude Cyclone: Stage Three
A
- Occluded Stage
- cold front overtakes warm front
- raises warm air completely
- INTENSE precipitation
18
Q
Mid-latitude Cyclone: Stage Four
A
- Dissolving
- cold front re-established
- clouds clear, precipitation stops
