Weather Vocab Flashcards
Humidity
a quantity representing the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere or in a gas.
Cumulus Cloud
clouds which have flat bases and are often described as puffy or fluffy in appearance.
Stratus Cloud
low-level layers with a fairly uniform grey or white color.
Cirrus Cloud
short, detached, hair-like clouds found at high altitudes
Cumulonimbus Cloud
menacing looking multi-level clouds, extending high into the sky in towers or plumes
Condensation
water which collects as droplets on a cold surface when humid air is in contact with it.
Evaporation
the process by which water changes from a liquid to a gas or vapor
Runoff
a further competition, election, race, etc., after a tie or inconclusive result.
Rain
moisture condensed from the atmosphere that falls visibly in separate drops.
Sleet
a form of precipitation consisting of ice pellets, often mixed with rain or snow.
Snow
atmospheric water vapor frozen into ice crystals and falling in light white flakes or lying on the ground as a white layer.
Hail
pellets of frozen rain which fall in showers from cumulonimbus clouds.
Polar – Maritime Airmass
the most common air mass to affect the British Isles.
Tropical – Maritime Airmass
warm and moist in its lowest layers
Polar – Continental Airmass
This air mass has its origins over the snow fields of Eastern Europe and Russia and is only considered a winter (November to April) phenomena
Tropical – Continental Airmass
a type of tropical air produced by the subtropical ridge over large areas of land and typically originate from low-latitude deserts
Cold Front
the boundary of an advancing mass of cold air, in particular the trailing edge of the warm sector of a low-pressure system.
Warm Front
the boundary of an advancing mass of warm air, in particular the leading edge of the warm sector of a low-pressure system.
Thunderstorm
a storm with thunder and lightning and typically also heavy rain or hail.
Lightning
a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere between clouds, the air, or the ground.
Thunder
a loud rumbling or crashing noise heard after a lightning flash due to the expansion of rapidly heated air.
Tornado
a violently rotating column of air extending from the base of a thunderstorm down to the ground.
Hurricane
a storm with a violent wind, in particular a tropical cyclone in the Caribbean.
Themorter
an instrument for measuring and indicating temperature, typically one consisting of a narrow, hermetically sealed glass tube marked with graduations and having at one end a bulb containing mercury or alcohol that expands and contracts in the tube with heating and cooling.
