A
What type of scientist studies the weather?
meteorologist
What is the cause of all weather?
the sun
What is the natural function in which the atmosphere keeps heat from escaping from the earth?
greenhouse effect
What is the imaginary line encircling the earth halfway between the North and South Poles?
equator
What is the southern half of the earth called?
Southern Hemisphere
What is water vapor that condenses and freezes on the ground?
frost
What is the boundary between two air masses called?
front
Does warm or cold air rise?
warm air
How fast does the earth spin?
1,000 miles per hour
What wind system is next to the equator?
trade winds
What are the three ingredients for clouds?
water, rising air and dust
What is the puffy cloud that we see in good weather?
cumulus
What is the lowest possible temperature air is able to hold all of its water vapor called?
dew point
Where is the safest place to be during a thunderstorm?
Indoors
What kind of cloud is like a low blanket and says that rain is coming?
stratus
What is the wispy cloud high in the sky?
cirrus
What wind system is next to the poles?
Polar easterlies
What is the only cloud on ground level?
fog
What are ice crystals that stick together?
wet snow
At what humidity percentage is air saturated?
100%
What is the blanketing function of earth’s atmosphere that prevents the earth’s heat from escaping into space?
greenhouse effect
What are ice crystals that fall to the earth by themselves?
dry snow
What are ice crystals that melt and refreeze in the air?
sleet
What are ice crystals that form pieces of ice in thunderheads and are tossed around in the cloud until too heavy?
hail
What wind system is between the trade winds and the polar easterlies?
Prevailing westerlies
What is the air going into a cloud called?
updraft
What is water vapor that condenses on the ground called?
dew
What is a large area of land or ocean with nearly the same temperature across the entire surface called?
source region
What is air going out of a cloud?
downdraft
What causes winds on earth?
temperature differences
What are ice crystals that melt and fall to earth in liquid form?
rain
What is the imaginary line running through the earth between the poles?
axis
What is the amount of water vapor that the air can hold at any given temperature?
relative humidity
What is a small piece of ice that is tossed up and down inside a cloud, forming several layers of ice, until it is too heavy and falls to earth?
hail
What is a single large unit of air with uniform temperature and humidity characteristics called?
air mass
What type of cloud is a thunderhead?
cumulonimbus
What does nimbus mean?
rain is falling from the cloud
What does alto mean?
A cloud that is in the middle
What is the flat top of a thunderhead called?
anvil top
What happens when opposite electrical charges build up in clouds?
lightning
What is the rapid expansion of superheated air when it causes shock waves?
thunder
What is any form of water that falls from the clouds to the earth called?
precipitation
What type of storm has the most destructive power in a small space?
tornado
What is the calm region of low air pressure in the center of a storm called?
the eye
What do meteorologists issue when a tornado is spotted on the ground?
tornado warning
What is the channel of charged air that lightning travels through?
step leader
What kind of lightning does not strike the ground but stays in the clouds?
sheet lightning
What is the row of thunderheads in front of advancing cold air called?
squall line
What is the troposphere’s topmost boundary, the location of the the temperature inversion?
tropopause