chapter 20 Flashcards
(21 cards)
air mass
a huge body of air in the troposphere with similar temperature and humidity throughout
continental air mass
a low humidity air mass that originates over land
maritime air mass
a high humidity air mass that originates over the oceans
arctic air mass
a frigid air mass that originates over the poles
polar air mass
a cool or cold air mass that originates over the upper latitudes
tropical air mass
a warm air mass that originates in the tropics
front
the boundary where at least two different air masses meet
orographic lifting
the upward movement of air masses as they flow over mountains
frontal wedging
the lifting of a warm air mass above a cool air mass acting as a wedge
convergence
the lifting of air when horizontal air currents from opposite directions collide and rise into the atmosphere
storm
a sever weather disturbance involving high winds, heavy precipitation, and other conditions, such as lightning or low temperatures
winter storm
a storm that brings heavy snow or sleet, high winds, and/or unusually cold weather
thunderstorm
a rainstorm that produces lightning
lightning
an atmospheric electrical discharge that occurs either between clouds or between cloud and the ground
tornado
a destructive, localized, rapidly rotating cyclonic windstorm forming a funnel
hurricane
an immense cyclonic windstorm that forms over a tropical or subtropical ocean
tropical storm
a strong cyclonic storm with winds of at least 63 km/h
eye (hurricane)
the low-pressure center of a hurricane containing relatively clear, calm, rising air
storm surge
a higher than normal local sea level caused by seawater flowing toward the lower air pressure under a hurricane
station model
a symbolic representation of data from a weather station on a weather map
synoptic weather map
a weather map that presents a summary of synopsis of weather data for a given time frame
