PRECIPITATION
What are the 4 types of precipitation?
Rain, sleet, hail, and snow.
What is climate?
Climate is the long-term average of weather patterns in a specific region, typically calculated over a 30-year period.
What tool is used to measure temperature?
Thermometer
What forms can water take?
solid, liquid, and gas.
What is the difference between weather and climate?
weather is the short-term state of the atmosphere (what happens today or this week), while climate is the long-term average of weather patterns in a specific region over decades or more.
How is hail made?
Ice crystals start forming inside storm clouds. As they fall down towards the ground, the wind pushes them back into the clouds. when they are too heavy to push back up, they fall down.
What is weather?
Weather is the short-term state of the atmosphere at a specific time and place, including conditions like temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind, and cloud cover.
What tool is used to measure wind speed and direction?
Anemometer or wind vane
How much of Earths surface is water?
About 71%.
How do clouds fill up with water?
Clouds form when invisible water vapor rises, cools, and condenses onto tiny particles like dust or salt.
How is snow formed?
Snow forms when water vapor in a cloud freezes onto a particle in sub-freezing temperatures, creating an ice crystal. This crystal then grows as more water vapor freezes onto it, forming a snowflake that falls to Earth.
Why does it rain?
It rains because of the water cycle, where the sun's heat causes water to evaporate, rise into the atmosphere, and cool to form clouds.
What tool is used to measure air pressure?
Barometer
What percentage of Earth's water is fresh and accessible?
Less than 1%.
What does a barometer measure, and what type of weather can we expect when the pressure drops?
A barometer measures atmospheric pressure. When the pressure drops, it indicates an approaching low-pressure system, which can bring stormy, rainy, or cloudy weather, and possibly high winds.
How is sleet formed?
Sleet is formed when snow falls through a layer of above-freezing air, partially melts into raindrops, and then refreezes into ice pellets as it passes through a deeper layer of below-freezing air near the ground.
How do storms form?
Storms form when three key ingredients—moisture, an unstable atmosphere, and a lifting mechanism—combine.
What tool is used to measure precipitation?
Rain gauge
What is water made out of?
2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom ( H2O)
Describe the process of condensation. (also, Why does water appear on a mirror after a shower?)
Condensation is the process where a gas, like water vapor, turns into a liquid. This happens when the gas cools, causing its molecules to slow down and clump together to form droplets. In the case of a foggy bathroom mirror, warm, moist air from a hot shower comes into contact with the cooler, solid surface of the mirror. The air cools, its ability to hold water vapor decreases, and the excess water vapor turns into tiny liquid water droplets on the mirror's surface.
In what type of weather does hail form?
Hail forms in severe thunderstorms, particularly those with strong updrafts, that carry water droplets high into the atmosphere where they freeze and accumulate into hailstones.
Why is the sky blue?
The sky is blue because of a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering, where air molecules in the atmosphere scatter sunlight. Blue light has a shorter wavelength and is scattered more than other colors, causing the sky to appear blue to our eyes. Also it because it is-
What tool is used to measure humidity?
Hygrometer
What percentage of Earth's water is freshwater, and what percentage is saltwater?
Approximately 97.5% of Earth's water is saltwater, while the remaining 2.5% is freshwater.
How does the location and characteristics of an area influence the type of precipitation it receives?
The location and characteristics of an area dictate the type of precipitation it receives through factors like latitude, elevation, proximity to large bodies of water, and the presence of mountain ranges.