Science Chapter 8 Test Review

Explain why the Bergeron-Findeisen process can produce both rain and snow

Precipitation formed through this process forms as snowflakes. The precipitation will be rain if the snowflakes melt (and do not freeze) and will be snow if they do not melt

What is the hydrologic cycle?

The movement of water from the earth’s surface, into the air, and back to the surface

When does freezing rain actually freeze?

When it touches a surface

What is a whiteout?

Phenomenon in which large amounts of falling and blowing snow reduce visibility to almost zero

Define drought

Abnormally low precipitation over a relatively long period, causing water shortage that affects crops, people, or the environment

What is drizzle?

Falling water drops less than 0.5mm in diameter

A brief period of light snowfall with little to no accumulation is a snow…

Flurry

What type of drought occurs when less rain than normal occurs but the effects on groundwater, crops, and people’s use of water are minimal?

Meteorological

An extended period of heavy snow and high winds is a…

Blizzard

What type of front forms when a maritime tropical air mass pushes into a stationary continental polar air mass?

Warm front. A maritime tropical air mass is warm and humid, whereas a continental polar air mass is cold and dry. Fronts are names by the advancing air mass; since the advancing air mass (maritime tropical) is warmer than the stationary air mass (continental polar), this is a warm front.

What type of fog occurs due to adiabatic cooling of upward-moving air?

Upslope fog

Through what process does frost form?

Deposition

True\False:

A “mackerel sky” occurs when rows of cirrocumulus clouds form a pattern resembling fish scales.

Identify the three major factors that determine the earth’s weather

Heat energy, uneven distribution of heat energy, water vapor in the atmosphere

Identify the amount of water vapor in the air

Humidity

Explain how are the dew point and relative humidity affected by a decrease in air temperature

Dew point remains the same; relative humity increases

What mid-level clouds block the sun and usually bring steady precipitation?

Nimbostratus

Define air mass

Large body of air with relatively uniform temperature, humidity, and pressure

Describe the type of weather brought by a maritime polar air mass.

Cool, wet

Describe an occluded front

Y-shaped front that forms when a slow-moving mass of warm air begins to climb over a stationary mass of cold air and a second cold air mass overtakes the warm air mass and slides underneath it