Clouds
This fluffy, white cloud looks like cotton and usually means fair weather.
Cumulus Cloud
This type of air mass is cold and dry, often bringing clear skies to the northern U.S. in winter, and forms over interior Canada or Siberia
Continental Polar
This type of precipitation occurs when rain falls through a layer of freezing air near the ground, forming small, clear ice pellets.
Sleet
Wind is caused by differences in this atmospheric factor between locations
Air Pressure
This instrument measures air temperature.
Thermometer
These thin, wispy clouds form high in the sky and are made of ice crystals
Cirrus Clouds
When a maritime polar (mP) air mass meets a continental tropical (cT) air mass, what kind of weather is most likely to occur along the boundary?
Explain why orographic lifting often causes one side of a mountain to be very wet and the other side dry.
Moist air rises up the windward side, cools, condenses, and produces precipitation. The leeward side gets dry air descending, creating a rain shadow.
Winds that blow steadily from west to east in the mid-latitudes are called this.
Westerlies
This device measures air pressure and is important for predicting storms.
Barometer
These clouds form in low layers, often covering the whole sky like a gray blanket, and can bring drizzle or light rain.
Stratus Clouds
This front moves faster than warm fronts and often causes a sudden drop in temperature, gusty winds, and heavy but short-lived rain or thunderstorms.
Cold Front
This precipitation type forms when supercooled water droplets freeze on contact with surfaces, often coating trees and roads with ice.
Freezing Rain
A local wind that blows from land to sea at night is called this, and it forms due to temperature differences.
Land breeze
This instrument shows wind direction using a rotating pointer, often on rooftops.
Wind vane or weather vane
This tall, towering cloud is associated with thunderstorms and severe weather.
Cumulonimbus Clouds
Explain why a stationary front can produce days of cloudy, wet weather, and how it differs from a occluded front in its formation.
A stationary front doesn’t move, so warm air rises slowly over cold air along the boundary, causing prolonged clouds and precipitation. An occluded front occurs when a cold front overtakes a warm front, lifting warm air off the ground.
What type of precipitation forms when tiny water droplets in clouds combine and fall, usually in warm weather?
Explain why mountain valleys often experience strong winds during the day and calm winds at night.
During the day, the sun warms the valley floor, causing air to rise and draw cooler air from the mountains (upslope winds). At night, the air cools and sinks, causing downslope winds or calm conditions.
Explain how a rain gauge works and why multiple measurements are sometimes taken in different locations.
A rain gauge collects falling precipitation in a cylinder, measuring the depth of rain. Multiple gauges are used because rainfall can vary across an area.
These clouds are thin, sheet-like, and appear at high altitudes. They can indicate changing weather patterns and often cover large parts of the sky.
Cirrostratus Clouds
A maritime tropical (mT) air mass from the Gulf of Mexico collides with a continental polar (cP) air mass from Canada in spring. Describe the likely type of front, cloud formations, and weather.
Cold front formation, cumulonimbus clouds, thunderstorms, heavy rain, possibly severe weather due to rapid lifting of warm, moist air by cold, dense air.
Describe how temperature affects whether precipitation falls as rain, snow, or sleet.
If the air from the cloud to the ground stays below freezing, it falls as snow. If it melts then refreezes before hitting the ground, it becomes sleet. If it melts completely and stays above freezing near the surface, it falls as rain.
This scale measures wind speed and the damage it can cause, and is commonly used for hurricanes and tornadoes.
Beaufort Scale
This instrument measures wind speed, and it often has cups or propellers that spin faster with stronger winds.
Anemometer