Understanding Weather

Carin Miranda

Smyrna Middle School

Winter 2013

Water in the Air

• Evaporation is when water changes from a liquid to a gas.

• When air reaches its dew point relative humidity is at 100%

Clouds

• Nimbostratus clouds will bring light to heavy continuous rainy weather.

• Cumulonimbus clouds are large thunderstorm clouds that produce precipitation.

• Altocumulus clouds are puffy mid-level clouds.• Cirrus clouds are high clouds made of ice crystals.

Precipitation

• Sleet-Starts as rain then freezes in the air.

• Snow-Water vapor changes directly into a solid because of cold temperatures.

• Hail-Forms when precipitation is sent back up into the clouds many times.

Air Masses

• Continental polar (cP) dry and cold• Maritime polar (mP) wet and cold• Continental tropical (cT) dry and warm• Maritime tropical (mT) wet and warm• C=dry• P=cold• M=wet• t-=warm

Fronts

• Warm front-warm air moves over cold air and replaces it.

• Stationary front-Not moving. Brings many days of cloudy, wet weather.

• Cold front-cold air mass displaces a warm air mass.

• Occluded front-warm air mass is caught between two cold air masses and is forced to rise. Lots of precipitation.

Meteorology

• Images of weather systems on television come from weather satellites.

• From a weather map you can tell the locations of cold and warm fronts.

• The lines connecting points of equal pressure on weather maps are called isobars.

• Isobars help meteorologists by showing areas of high and low pressure.

Vocabulary

• Humidity

• Air mass

• Front

• Barometric pressure

• Meteorologist

• Psychrometer

Vocabulary 2

• Thermometer

• Barometer

• Anemometer

• Rain Gauge

• Wind Vane

• Wind

Vocabulary 3

• Hygrometer

• Weather

• Relative Humidity

• Condensation

• Cloud

• Precipitation