Atmosphere
Weather Fronts
Predictions
Severe Storms
Vocabulary
100
These two gases make up 99 percent of the dry air.
What is nitrogen and oxygen?
100
An air mass that forms over oceans and is usually humid.
What is a maritime air mass?
100
The National Weather Service launches more than 1000 of these every day to gather information from the troposphere.
What are weather balloons?
100
About 45,000 of these occur on Earth everyday; resulting in lightning, thunder, heavy precipitation, and sometimes hailstones as big as tennis balls.
What are thunderstorms?
100
Large body of air that has the same characteristics throughout.
What is an air mass?
200
The only atmospheric level that experiences weather.
What is the troposphere?
200
The movement of air from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure.
What is wind?
200
One of the newer meteorology tools, this instrucment can not only identify storms, but can detect the motion of winds inside a storm.
What is Doppler radar?
200
It is usually attracted to the highest point in the area and to materials that easily conduct electricity, such as water, wiring, and metals.
What is lightning?
200
The amount of moisture in the air compared to the greatest amount of moisture that could be in the air.
What is relative humidity?
300
The four layers of the atmosphere are based on this.
What is temperature?
300
Meteorologists classify fronts into four types.
What are warm fronts, cold fronts, stationary fronts and occluded fronts?
300
This instrument is used to measure wind speed.
What is an anemometer?
300
When winds reach this speed, a tropical storm is classified as a hurricane.
What is 119 km/her (74 mi/hr)
400
The top of Mount Everest is near it's upper limits.
What is the troposphere?
400
Because these fronts move so much warm air high into the troposphere so quickly, they can cause severe thunderstorms and even tornadoes.
What are cold fronts?
400
An arrangement of symbols and numbers that show the weather conditions recorded at a weather station.
What is a station model?
400
These die out when they reach cooler seas, or move across land.
What is a hurricane?
400
When two air masses collide they form this.
What is a front?
500
Temperatures are extremely high, but it doesn't "feel" hot because there are so few air molecules.
What is the thermosphere?
500
High, thin cirrus clouds are a sign that this is on the way.
What is a warm front?
500
Because of this advancement in technology, forecasters are able to track the path of hurricanes and other severe storms.
What are weather satellites?
500
Nickname for a stretch of the Great Plains from northern Texas through North and South Dakota.
What is Tornado Alley?
500
Using weather station data, scientists can make this to show weather fronts and areas of high and low pressure.
What is a surface map?
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