maritime tropical airmass warm and humid weather maritime polar airmass cool/cold and humid weather continental tropical airmass warm and dry weather continental polar airmass cool/cold and dry weather cold front form when a fast moving cold air mass pushes into slow moving warm air warm front form when a fast moving warm air mass pushes into slow moving cold air stationary front form when a warm air mass and a cold air mass push against each other but neither is moving fast enough to push the other out of the way occluded front form when 2 cold air masses surround a warm air mass and keep it from the ground thunderstorm form within cumulonimbus clouds; areas of positive and negative charges build up in the clouds and make lightning; lightning heats the air rapidly, causing the air to expand rapidly, and you hear thunder hurricane tropical storm with winds of 119 km per hour and higher (about 74 miles per hour); begins over warm water as a tropical disturbance; measured using the Saffir-Simpson scale tornado rapidly swirling, funnel-shaped cloud that touches down from cumulonimbus clouds; wind speeds may reach 480 km/hour (over 298 miles per hour); most likely to occur when thunderstorms are likely, when warm and cold air masses meet; most often occur in the US than any other country;Tornado Alley (TX, OK, KS, NE); measured using the Fujita scale What are the three types of clouds? cumulus, stratus, cirrus Cirrus Cloud sheetlike; cirrus, cirrostratus, and cirrocumulus clouds are made up mostly of ice crystals Cumulonimbus Cloud thunderstorms come from cumulonimbus clouds Nimbostratus Cloud may produce rain or snow Cumulus Cloud usually a sign of fair weather Isobars lines joining places on a map that have the same barometric pressure Isotherms lines joining places on a map with the same temperature Low air pressure low air pressure forms a cyclone; winds in this spin counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere; as the air rises, it cools and forms clouds and precipitation; represented by an L on a weather map High air pressure high air pressure forms an anticyclone; winds spin clockwise in the northern hemisphere; brings clear, dry weather; represented by an H on a weather map Troposphere rain, snow, storms, and most clouds occur in the troposphere (0-12km) Stratosphere ozone layeer absorbs ultraviolet radiation (12-50km) Mesosphere most meteoroids burn up, producing meteor trails (50-80km) Thermosphere has no definite outer limit, split into ionosphere and exosphere (above 80km) Ionosphere ions reflect radio waves back to Earth; aurora borealis occurs here (80-550km) Exosphere phone calls and television pictures often reach you by way of communications satellites that orbit Earth here (above 550km) Doldrums regions near the equator with little or no winds Horse latitudes 30°N and 30°S of the equator; high pressure, calm area Trade winds blow between 30°N and the equator and 30°S and the equator Prevailing westerlies blow between 30°N and 60°N and 30°S and 60°S Changing Barometric pressure and what it means High pressure brings clear weather and low pressure brings cloudy, rainy weather
Vocab 7 