What Causes Earth's Weather?
This is the main “engine” that drives Earth’s weather system.
What is uneven heating of the Earth by the sun?
These are the three main types of clouds, classified by height and appearance.
What are cirrus, cumulus, and stratus?
These three ingredients are needed to form a thunderstorm.
What are moisture, unstable air, and a lifting mechanism?
This was the highest recorded surface wind speed, measured in the May 3, 1999 Oklahoma tornado.
What is 302 mph?
This event in Earth’s history is linked in the book to major climate changes, including the Ice Age.
What is Noah’s Flood?
This high-altitude ribbon of fast-moving air generally flows from west to east and steers storms.
What is the jet stream?
This process describes how water evaporates, condenses into clouds, and falls back to Earth as precipitation.
What is the water cycle?
This is the electrical discharge that occurs within a thunderstorm cloud or between the cloud and the ground.
What is lightning?
These large tropical storms form over warm ocean water and are ranked on a 1–5 scale.
What are hurricanes?
This dry location in Chile went more than 400 years without measurable rain.
What is Calama? (in the Atacama Desert)
These form when warm air rises and cool air sinks, helping create wind and weather patterns.
What are convection currents?
This is the temperature at which air becomes saturated and condensation begins.
What is the dew point?
This rare and fascinating weather phenomenon appears as a bluish glow around pointed objects during thunderstorms.
What is St. Elmo’s Fire?
This type of winter precipitation forms when raindrops freeze into ice pellets before hitting the ground.
What is sleet?
This natural cycle of warming and cooling in the Pacific Ocean strongly affects global weather patterns.
What is El Niño?
This force, caused by Earth’s rotation, deflects winds and ocean currents.
What is the Coriolis effect?
This special form of water collides with dust particles to create hailstones.
What are supercooled drops?
These are the three stages in the life cycle of a thunderstorm.
What are the cumulus, mature, and dissipating stages?
This place recorded the hottest temperature ever measured on Earth: 134°F (56.7°C).
What is Death Valley, California?
This phenomenon traps heat within earth's atmosphere.
What is the Greenhouse Effect?
Warm and cold versions of these boundaries between air masses help produce many weather changes.
What are fronts?
This is the most common way fog forms near the ground.
What is when air cools to its dew point?
This type of severe weather forms under the southwestern part of a thunderstorm and can produce winds over 200 mph.
What is a tornado?
This location received the most snow in a one-year period: about 102 feet.
What is Mount Rainier, Washington?
According to the book, this is the most important factor that determines climate in a region over long periods.
What is latitude?