Climate Zones
Air & Wind
Clouds
Fronts & Storms
Weather
100
This climate is in the polar front zone - the battleground of polar and tropical air masses. Seasonal changes between summer and winter are very large. Daily temperatures also change often. Abundant precipitation falls throughout the year. It is increased in the summer season by invading tropical air masses. Cold winters are caused by polar and arctic masses moving south.
What is a deciduous forest?
100
The weight of air pressing down on earth. It's the same as barometric pressure.
What is air pressure?
100
A cloud on the ground. It is composed of billions of tiny water droplets floating in the air.
What is fog?
100
A boundary between two different air masses, resulting in stormy weather. It is usually is a line of separation between warm and cold air masses.
What is a front?
100
The amount of water vapor in the air.
What is humidity?
200
This climate is found along arctic coastal areas. Polar and arctic air masses dominate the tundra climate. The winter season is long and severe. A short, mild season exists, but not a true summer season. Moderating ocean winds keep the temperatures from being as severe as interior regions.
What is a tundra?
200
Three types: Polar Easterlies, Westerlies, Trade Winds
What are global winds?
200
Thunderstorm clouds.
What are cumulonimbus clouds?
200
They are intense storms with swirling winds up to 150 miles per hour. Usually around 300 miles across, hurricanes are 1,000-5,000 times larger than tornadoes.
What are hurricanes?
200
A whirling mass of cool, dry air that generally brings fair weather and light winds.
What is a high pressure system?
300
These dry climates are limited to the interiors of North America and Eurasia. Ocean air masses are blocked by mountain ranges to the west and south. This allows polar air masses to dominate in winter months. In the summer, a local continental air mass is dominant. A small amount of rain falls during this season. Annual temperatures range widely. Summers are warm to hot, but winters are cold.
What are the grasslands?
300
Winds which blow from tropical high pressure belts toward the equatorial region of low pressure. In the Northern Hemisphere, they blow from the northeast.
What are trade winds?
300
White, puffy clouds that look like pieces of floating cotton. These clouds are often called "fair-weather clouds". The base of each cloud is flat and the top of each cloud has rounded towers.
What are cumulous clouds?
300
It’s a low-pressure disturbance that forms over warm tropical ocean waters. In the United States, a tropical storm has winds between 39-73 m.p.h.
What is a tropical storm?
300
The temperature at which water starts to condense out of a particular air mass. This temperature changes only when the moisture content of the air changes.
What is the dew point?
400
These climates are found just north and south of the equator; winds are light, which allows for the evaporation of moisture in the intense heat. They generally flow downward so the area is seldom penetrated by air masses that produce rain. This makes for a very dry heat. Covers 12% of the earth.
What is a desert?
400
Occur during the day, when the land is warmer than the water.
What are sea breezes?
400
Very high clouds (above 20,000 ft).
What are cirrus clouds? (cirro-stratus, cirro-cumulous, etc.)
400
A combination of two fronts that form when a cold front catches up and overtakes a warm front.
What is an occluded front?
400
Rain that falls in liquid form but freezes upon impact to form a coating of glaze on the ground and on exposed objects.
What is freezing rain?
500
Tropical Moist Climates; high surface heat and humidity cause cumulus clouds to form early in the afternoons almost every day; rainfall is heavy in all months.
What are rainforests?
500
A strong high level wind found in the atmosphere that can reach speeds in excess of 200 mph, usually occurring 6 to 9 miles above the ground. These winds often steer the movement of surface air masses and weather systems.
What is a jet stream?
500
Mid-level clouds, found 6500-20,000 ft.
What are alto clouds? (altocumulous, altostratus, etc.)
500
A boundary between two air masses, one cold and the other warm, moving so that the colder air replaces the warmer air.
What is a cold front
500
The difference between 'weather' and 'climate'.
What is: Weather may change from day to day, but climate changes only over hundreds or thousands of years. Many animals and plants need one kind of climate to survive. Dolphins and palm trees can live only in a warm climate, while polar bears and spruce trees need a cold climate.
M
e
n
u