The Water Cycle
When water changes from a liquid to a gas it’s called this.
Evaporation
Air cools as it rises, until it reaches the point where air can no longer hold water, also known as 100% relative humidity. This is the point water vapor turns back into a liquid known as a cloud.
Dew point
These clouds are stretched out blankets, forming layers or sheets.
Stratus
When the ground cools at night, it can’t hold as much water and this forms.
Dew
Stratus clouds that reach the ground are called what?
Fog
Why do we need ground water?
Because most of the water on Earth is salt water, and we get most of our drinking water from the ground.
Water from plants enters the atmosphere via this process.
Transpiration
The process of water vapor (gas) turning back into a liquid is called this.
Condensation
These clouds are formed from ice crystals, high in the sky, and look like wispy clouds.
Cirrus
When dew forms, but the temperatures outside are freezing, it’s called this.
Frost
Radiation fog is caused when the ground radiates what back into the atmosphere after the sun goes down?
heat
Why don’t clouds always result in rain?
They can dissolve if the air around it is drier.
Water from animals exhaling enters the atmosphere via this process.
Respiration
Dust, dirt, pollen, smoke (Particles in the air)
These clouds look like a heap or pile, and are big and fluffy clouds that make fun shapes on a sunny day.
Cumulus
As water droplets fall, they do this, getting bigger as they fall.
coalesce
Advection fog means “moved by the wind”, as warm moist air is blown over colder surfaces like the ocean. Sometimes the warm is air is blown from the water over cooler land. What is the other name for this fog?
Sea fog.
Why do clouds look white?
Water drops in the cloud reflect the sun’s rays evenly, so they appear white.
When we boil water, it enters the air by this process.
Vaporization
When the air around a cloud is drier than the cloud, what happens?
The cloud disappears.
Horizontal air movement makes the clouds do this
stretch across the sky
When a drop of water reaches 1/2 mm in size, we call that what type of precipitation?
Steam fog happens when cool air moves over a moist, warm surface. This is the opposite of which type of fog?
Advection fog.
Why is the sky blue?
The gas molecules (and water vapor) scatter light like a prism. Blue light is more easily scattered, making the sky look blue.
The process of warm air rising higher is the atmosphere is called this.
Convection
When the air above can no longer hold the water in the clouds up, we get what?
Precipitation
Vertical air movement causes clouds to clump together causing which type of cloud?
Cumulus
When the ground is below freezing and it’s raining outside, the rain freezes as it hits the ground. What is this called?
Freezing rain
Valley fog
Why is the sun yellow?
Yellow light has a longer wavelength, making sunlight look yellow.
Name one other way warm air rises and cools, other than convection.
1. When warm air meets a cold air mass, it is pushed higher.
2. When warm air is blown against mountain peaks it is forced higher, and it cools.
True or false. A large cloud can weigh up to 700,000 tons - more than the weight of 3000 jumbo jets.
true
Low clouds are classified as this type
Strato
If the rain falls through a very cold layer of air and it freezes, this is called what?
Sleet
This type of fog happens on a windy day in the mountains, blowing warm air higher along the slope of a mountain.
Upslope fog
Why does it rain more on one side of a mountain than the other?
The warm air gets pushed to the top of a mountain, and moves to the other side as it cools, creating rain.
Which weighs more, air or water?
Air. This is why air pressure holds up clouds.
A single raindrop has an average of how many water droplets?
1 million
Middle clouds are called this.
Alto
These are large pellets of ice that form when ice crystals are forced back up into the clouds by strong updrafts until they are heavy enough to reach the ground.
Hail
Water does not usually form drops unless it has something it can stick to. Another name for the tiny bits of dirt, smoke pollen and other particles that water can stick to is this.
condensation nuclei.
How effective is cloud seeding?
We don’t know because they choose clouds that already are known to bring rain (nimbus clouds).
This zone is the area of ground above the water table, where there is soil, water, and air.
Zone of aeration
Some of the precipitation does not go underground, it moves along the surface. What is that called?
Surface runoff (or runoff)
High clouds area called this
Cirro
This type of precipitation is water is crystallized in the clouds and reaches the ground still frozen.
Snow
This is rain that is way too acidic, which can kill plants and animals and erode statues.
Acid rain
What conditions are necessary for large hailstones to form?
Strong updrafts and cold temperatures higher in the atmosphere.
This zone is only soil and water (no air), and wells are dug below this point to provide drinking water to many people.
Zone of saturation
When water is filtered through the soil, we call that what?
Infiltration or percolation.
Low stretched out clouds that bring rain are called
Nimbostratus
Snowflakes are unique like you, and this shape.
Hexagonal
This led to the Soil Conservation Act of 1935. It resulted from removing all the grass, a drought, bunnies died, people moved to California, and dirt clouds blocked the sun in Washington DC.
The Dust Bowl
What is the difference between drizzle and rain.
Drizzle raindrops are much smaller than rain.
This is where the zone of aeration and the zone of saturation meet.
The Water Table
Eventually, most of the ground water makes its way to this, which contributes most of the water to the atmosphere?
Oceans
Giant billowy thunderstorm clouds, that can stretch as high as 10 miles are called.
Cumulonimbus
When we get no rain for a while, it is called what.
drought
Sometimes humans try to make it rain by putting silver iodide crystals or dry ice in the nimbus clouds to make it rain. What is this called?
Cloud seeding
What is the difference between sleet and hail?
Sleet is rain that freezes on the way down, while hail is ice higher up that keeps getting pushed back up until it is big enough to fall to the ground.