Earth Science B Quiz 4/27

Question 1

What is weather?

Answer 1

Weather is the day-to-day shifts in atmospheric conditions.

Question 2

What is climate?

Answer 2

long-term (~30 years) prevailing weather and temperature patterns.

Question 3

What is an air mass?

Answer 3

A large volume of air reflects the terrain that it is moving over.

Question 4

What is an air mass described in terms of?

Answer 4

Humidity content and temperature.

Question 5

What are weather fronts?

Answer 5

The boundary between two air masses.

Question 6

What does the density of the air determine?

Answer 6

Interactions.

Question 7

What will less dense air do with cold air?

Answer 7

Lift over cold air.

Question 8

What will more dense air do with warm air?

Answer 8

Bulldoze under it.

Question 9

What is a warm front?

Answer 9

Warmer air meeting colder air.

Question 10

What does a warm front form?

Answer 10

Stratus clouds that cover large areas of the sky.

Question 11

What is a cold front?

Answer 11

Colder air meeting warmer air.

Question 12

What does a cold front form?

Answer 12

Towering cumulonimbus clouds.

Question 13

What can cumulonimbus clouds form?

Answer 13

Heavy rain and violent storms.

Question 14

When does an occluded front occur?

Answer 14

Occurs when a colder air mass completely bulldozes the warm air mass out of the way.

Question 15

What does an occluded front act like?

Answer 15

A cold front.

Question 16

What happens at an occluded front?

Answer 16

Warmer air ends up over the colder air (more dense).

Question 17

Where do frontal thunderstorms develop?

Answer 17

Along strong cold fronts.

Question 18

What do frontal thunderstorms form?

Answer 18

Towering cumulonimbus clouds.

Question 19

What do frontal thunderstorms lead to?

Answer 19

Golf ball size hail, severe thunder and lightning, and even tornadoes.

Question 20

What are the three stages of frontal thunderstorms?

Answer 20

Cumulus, Mature, Dissipating.

Question 21

What are frontal thunderstorm ingredients?

Answer 21

Massive amounts of moisture in the air (high humidity), Large temperature difference between the colder and warmer air mass, and an updraft.

Question 22

What is an updraft?

Answer 22

Air being forced up to higher altitudes.

Question 23

What happens in the mature stage?

Answer 23

A fully developed cumulonimbus cloud has formed.

Question 24

How do strong downdrafts form?

Answer 24

Precipitation (rain/hail) and dense, sinking air.

Question 25

What is a tornado?

Answer 25

A mobile, destructive vortex of violently rotating winds having the appearance of a funnel-shaped cloud and advancing beneath a large storm system.

Question 26

How many tornados happen in the U.S. Per year?

Answer 26

Over 1200.

Question 27

Where do tornadoes generally track?

Answer 27

Generally track SW>NE.

Question 28

When do tornadoes normally occur?

Answer 28

Most occur between April and June, between 4-9 pm.

Question 29

What are tornado requirements?

Answer 29

Earth’s rotation (Coriolis effect), Strong cold fronts, wind shear, and updraft.

Question 30

What is wind shear?

Answer 30

When cold, dense air bulldozes warm, humid air violently over top of itself.

Question 31

What does wind shear cause?

Answer 31

The air to start rotating.

Question 32

What are the 4 steps to tornado formation?

Answer 32

1. Wind Shear
2. Updraft
3. Storm
4. Supercell

Question 33

What are tornadoes measured in?

Answer 33

The enhanced Fujita scale.

Question 34

What is a hurricane?

Answer 34

An intense, low-pressure system having minimal sustained winds of 74mph. Rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere.

Question 35

Where are hurricanes the strongest?

Answer 35

On the outside edge?

Question 36

What are the requirements of a hurricane?

Answer 36

Warm water, rotating earth, LAtitudes of 5-20 degrees North or South.

Question 37

What does high pressure during a hurricane mean?

Answer 37

Sinking air moves away and rotates clockwise.

Question 38

What does low pressure during a hurricane mean?

Answer 38

Rising air and moving towards it and it is rotating counter clockwise.

Question 39

Why don’t hurricanes form during the hottest month?

Answer 39

Water has a high specific heat capacity, meaning it takes the whole summer for the water to heat up.

Question 40

How are hurricanes categorized?

Answer 40

They are categorized on the safir-Simpson scale and by wind.