meteorology review

What is the primary difference between a cloud droplet and a raindrop?

Size and amount of water

Why do typical cloud droplets seldom reach the ground as rain?

a cloud droplet is in equilibrium with its surroundings, the size of the droplet does not change because the water molecules condensing onto the droplet will be exactly balanced by those evaporating from it

List and describe three ways in which ice crystals can form in a cloud.

(1) the collision-coalescence process

(2) the ice-crystal(Bergeron) process.

(3) Contact freezing, and the particles involved are called contact nuclei

Explain how clouds can be seeded naturally.

ice crystals may descend from the higher cloud and seed the cloud below. As the ice crystals mix into the lower cloud, super-cooled droplets are converted to ice crystals

What atmospheric conditions are necessary for snow to fall when the air temperature is considerably above freezing?

the air must be unsaturated (relative humidity is less than 100 percent), and the wet-bulb temperature must be at freezing or below

What is considered standard sea-level atmospheric pressure in millibars?

1013.25 mb

How does an aneroid barometer differ from a mercury barometer?

Mercury barometer contains mercury that raises or lowers with differing pressure. An aneroid barometer does not contain liquid, it is a small sealed box that expands/contracts with changes in pressure

What does the Coriolis force do to moving air (a) in the Northern Hemisphere?

causes the wind to deflect to the right of its intended path in the Northern Hemisphere

If the earth were not rotating, how would the wind blow with respect to centers of high and low pressure?

Always go directly from high to low.

Consider wind blowing over a land surface that crosses a coastline and then blows over a lake. How will the wind speed and direction change as it moves from the land surface to the lake surface?

Wind speed would slow down due to more friction, and begin to curve clockwise around high pressure and counterclockwise around low pressure due to PGF, and Coriolis Force

Define the Synoptic Scale of Motion

weather map scale

Name and describe three instruments used to measure wind speed and direction.

Wind vane - Direction

Wind Sock - Direction

Anemometer – Wind speed

If you are standing directly south of a smoke stack and the smoke from the stack is blowing over your head, what would be the wind direction?

Northerly

What is a haboob, and where does it usually occur?

Violent dust storm, desert

Name the scales of motion

Microscale

Mesoscale

Synoptic Scale

Global Scale

List three air mass types.

continental polar cP

continental arctic cA

maritime polar mP

maritime tropical mT

continental tropical cT

It is summer. What type of afternoon weather would you expect from an air mass designated as mT? Explain.

Warm moist air

Why is continental polar air not welcome to the Central Plains in winter and yet very welcome in summer?

Extremely frigid in winter, a cooler reprieve in the summer.

Lead iodide is an effective ice-forming nucleus. Why do you think it has not been used for that purpose?

Lead is poisonous.

The gas law states that pressure is proportional to temperature x density. Use the gas law to explain why a balloon will deflate when placed inside a refrigerator. Use the gas law to explain why the same balloon will inflate when removed from the refrigerator and placed in a warm room.

Boyle’s Law – direct relationship between volume and temperature. As temperature decreases the volume decreases.

Lake Erie freezes over. Describe how this phenomenon will determine the amount of lake-effect snow Buffalo will receive.

In late winter, the frequency and intensity of lake-effect snows often taper off as the temperature contrast between water and air diminishes and larger portions of the lakes freeze.