California is experiencing this severe weather across California right now.
What is a drought?
100
This powerful form of wind happens when cold air over the land runs into a mass of warm air, and the warm air is forced up violently.
What is a tornado?
100
This is the term for the weather predictions made by meteorologists.
What is forecasting, or a forecast?
100
This is what it's called when a cold air mass and warm air mass make contact.
What is a front?
200
Moisture in the airs takes these forms in weather.
What are humidity, clouds, and precipitation.
200
This is the source of most water in California.
What is the Pacific Ocean.
200
This severe weather happens when an air mass at the ground is much warmer and more humid than the air above. Rapid convection begins. As the warm, humid air rises, the water vapor in it condenses.
What is a thunderstorm?
200
Meteorologists use these 3 types of measurements to make their forecasts.
What are surface measurements, atmospheric measurements, and satellite images.
200
These are the directions that cold air masses move and warm air masses move.
What is cold air masses move south and warm air masses move north?
300
This creates the air movement known as wind.
What is the uneven heating of Earth's surfaces?
300
This moderates the weather along the coast of California.
What is the Pacific Ocean?
300
These wind systems that rotate around an eye, or center of low atmospheric pressure and form over warm tropical seas.
What are hurricanes?
300
These special instruments are carried by balloons up into the atmosphere.
What are radiosondes?
300
This is what causes a cold front.
What is when a cold air mass overtakes a mass of warm, moist air?
400
This starts a convection current.
What is warm air expanding and becoming less dense and denser cool air flowing under the warm air.
400
This type of intense snow storm sometimes happen in the California mountains.
What is a blizzard?
400
This creates spinning funnel in tornadoes.
What is at the same time, cooler, denser air flows in from sides and twists the rising warm air?
400
Satellites "watch" these move over the Earth's surface.
What are clouds and water vapor?
400
This what happens when a warm front and a cold front come together and stop moving.
What is stationary front?
500
These are the three variables that describe weather.
What are heat, moisture, and movement?
500
The Pineapple Express affects California this way.
What is the warm Pineapple Express meets cold air flowing down from Alaska and cause cause a violent winter storm?
500
This creates lightening in thunderstorms.
What is the rapid movement of air that creates static electricity discharges.
500
These are the five weather variables measured using surface measurements at weather stations.
What are temperature, wind speed and direction, air pressure, cloud cover, and precipitation?
500
The "H" and "L" stand for this on a weather map.
What are high pressure areas and low pressure areas?