Clouding the Issue
They're high, wispy and pose no real threat
What are cirrus clouds?
Caused by uneven heating of the Earth's surface, it can give a pilot a turbulent ride
What is a convective current?
As pressure decreases, this increases and affects your planes performance
What is density altitude?
This can be caused by supercooled water droplets and can change the shape of an airfoil
What is clear ice?
Its name even suggests that it acts like a snowplow to force warm weather aloft
What is a cold front?
It's the worst cloud a pilot can encounter
What is a cumulonimbus cloud?
Signified by "mT," this airmass comes onto the contiguous United States from southern bodies of water
What is a maritime tropical airmass?
This is different for dry air and moist air, and shows instability
What is adiabatic lapse rate?
This is caused by frozen rain gaining size as it's tossed inside a thunderstorm and can hit an airplane up to 20 miles away
What is hail?
Severe weather - thunderstorms, rain, fog - are likely when a cold front rides over a colder, slower moving warm front during this
What is a warm front occlusion?
It's a low cloud with rain
What is a nimbostratus cloud?
During the day, this is cause by land warming faster than its neighboring body of water
Airports apply this rate for their sea level pressure altitude
What is - 1" Hg / 1000 ft?
Downdrafts begin at this most violent stage of a thunderstorm
What is the mature stage of a thunderstorm?
This front can affect local weather for days with weather from both warm and cold fronts
What is a stationary front?
Line up a bunch of thunderstorms and you might night fly around this
What is a squall line?
Low pressure areas have this counterclockwise type of circulation
What is cyclonic circulation?
What is -2.5 degrees Celsius per 1000 feet?
Any rotation from incoming air to a thunderstorm can create one of these that touches the ground
What is a tornado?
Barometric pressure generally does this with the passage of a warm front
What is rises then falls?
This forms when warm, moist air moves over a cold surface but if winds are above 15 knots, it forms low stratus clouds
What is advection fog?
In the Northern Hemisphere, this causes northbound air to become eastbound
What is Coriolis Force?
This pressure in inches of mercury and temperature in Fahrenheit at sea level are pretty standard, really
What is 29.92 inches of mercury at 59 degrees Celsius?
This creates the kind of wind shear that first increases performance of an airplane but could then send it to the ground, and it's anything but tiny, unlike its name implies
What is a microburst?
What is good visibility and rising barometric pressure?