WATER VAPOR & HUMIDITY
What is humidity?
Answer: The amount of water vapor in the air.
What is density?
Answer: The amount of matter packed into a certain amount of space.
What is an air mass?
Answer: A large body of air with similar temperature and humidity throughout.
What is a front?
Answer: The boundary where two air masses meet.
What force causes precipitation to fall back to Earth?
Answer: Gravity
What is relative humidity?
Answer: The percentage of water vapor in the air compared to the maximum amount the air can hold.
What happens to particles when they are heated?
Answer: They move faster and spread farther apart.
What air mass is warm and moist?
Answer: Maritime Tropical (mT)
What happens during a cold front?
Answer: Cold air pushes under warm air and forces the warm air upward.
What is the main source of energy for Earth's weather systems?
Answer: The Sun
What is the dew point?
Answer: The temperature at which air becomes saturated with water vapor.
Is warm air more dense or less dense than cold ai
Answer: Less dense.
What air mass is cool and moist?
Answer: Maritime Polar (mP)
What happens during a warm front?
Answer: Warm air slowly rises over colder air.
Why do clouds form when warm, moist air rises?
Answer: The air cools and water vapor condenses into liquid water droplets.
When an air mass reaches the dew point, what happens?
Answer: Condensation occurs and liquid water forms.
Why does warm air rise?
Answer: Warm air is less dense than cold air.
What two characteristics are used to describe an air mass?
Answer: Temperature and humidity.
What front forms when two air masses meet but neither moves?
Answer: Stationary Front
What type of front typically produces the strongest weather and thunderstorms?
Answer: Cold Front
A parcel of air contains 15 g/m³ of water vapor. The maximum amount it can hold is 20 g/m³. What is the relative humidity
Answer: 75%
A hot air balloon rises when the air inside is heated. Explain why
Answer: Heating the air makes the particles spread out, making the air less dense than the surrounding air.
Why do weather changes often occur when two different air masses meet?
Answer: They have different temperatures and moisture levels that interact.
What front forms when a cold front catches up to a warm front?
Answer: Occluded Front
A weather station reports:
What weather would you predict?
Answer: Thunderstorms because warm, moist air rises, cools, condenses, and forms storm clouds.