Weather Variables
This weather variable measures how hot or cold the atmosphere is.
What is temperature?
This is the term for a large body of air that has uniform temperature, humidity, and pressure.
What is an air mass?
In this type of pressure system, warm, less dense air rises, leading to clouds and precipitation.
What is a low-pressure system?
This is the term for the average weather in a region over a long period of time.
What is climate?
Jet streams are narrow bands of high winds found near the top of this layer of the atmosphere.
What is the troposphere?
This variable measures the weight of air molecules pressing down on a surface.
What is air pressure?
This is the boundary between two air masses.
What is a front?
In this type of pressure system, cool, dense air sinks and clouds cannot form, bringing clear skies and fair weather.
What is a high-pressure system?
This is the most important influence on a region's climate, since Earth receives different amounts of it depending on latitude.
What is solar energy (from the Sun)?
Jet streams flow in this general direction around Earth.
What is west to east?
This weather variable measures the amount of water vapor in the air.
What is humidity?
In this type of front, a colder air mass pushes underneath a warmer air mass, causing heavy rain, thunder, and lightning.
What is a cold front?
In the Northern Hemisphere, winds blow in this direction around a low-pressure system.
What is counterclockwise (and converging)?
These areas of low rainfall found on the downwind slopes of mountains are called this.
What are rain shadows?
During an El Niño event, surface waters in this ocean become significantly warmer than usual.
What is the central and eastern Pacific Ocean
Meteorologists use an anemometer to measure this weather variable.
What is wind speed?
This type of front forms when two air masses stall for several days with neither advancing, bringing cloudy skies and light rain.
What is a stationary front?
Cool air masses have this type of pressure because their molecules are closer together and have more weight.
What is high pressure?
Large bodies of water moderate the climate of nearby areas because water has this property, meaning it takes more energy to heat up than land.
What is high specific heat?
Jet streams form at the boundary between these two types of air, where temperature differences in the upper atmosphere are greatest.
What is cold, dry polar air and warm, moist air?
These are the five main weather variables that meteorologists use to describe atmospheric conditions.
What are temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind speed, and precipitation?
This type of front forms when a fast-moving cold front catches up with a slow-moving warm front.
What is an occluded front?
When a cold front passes a fixed location, the temperature and humidity change in these specific ways.
What is: temperature drops suddenly and humidity drops sharply?
German scientist Wladimir Köppen classified the world's climates into these five main types in 1918.
What are polar, continental, dry, tropical, and mild?
El Niño events occur roughly this often, as the warm cycle alternates with its sibling La Niña.
What is every two to seven years?