Term
| When you open your mouth and breathe out on a very cold day outdoors, your breath becomes visible as a(n) _______ fog. When you blow into a glass containing an iced drink, a(n) ___________ fog forms and billows out of the glass. |
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Definition
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Term
| A lapse rate is defined as the rate at which________________ as the altitude increases |
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Definition
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Term
| The average tropospheric lapse rate is about_____ |
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Definition
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Term
| The moist adiabatic lapse rate is _______ the dry adiabatic lapse rate due to ____________ when water vapor condenses into water inside a saturated air parcel that is rising and expanding adiabatically. The average value of the moist adiabatic lapse rate in the lower troposphere is ________ |
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Definition
less than the release of latent heat 6°C/km |
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Term
| If we start with an air parcel having a temperature equal to the environmental temperature, it will be neutrally buoyant. If we displace it upward slightly and it continues to rise on its own because it has become warmer than the surrounding air, we say that the parcel was originally in a(n) __________ state of equilibrium. In this case, the parcel became warmer than the surrounding air because the lapse rate for the (unsaturated) air parcel is________ the environmental lapse rate. |
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Definition
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Term
| When the atmosphere is conditionally unstable, an unsaturated air parcel that is rising will lose temperature at a rate that is _________ the rate at which the temperature in the environment is decreasing with increasing altitude. If the air parcel reaches the Lifting Condensation Level, the rate at which the parcel now loses temperature while it rises upward will be ___________ the temperature loss rate in the environment. |
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Definition
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Term
| In a temperature inversion, the environmental lapse rate is ___________ 0°C/km and the atmosphere is considered to be absolutely stable. [last pair of blanks: stability state |
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Definition
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Term
| ___________growth of precipitation particles occurs when an ice crystal collides with supercooled cloud droplets and the droplets freeze onto the ice crystal. This fluffy, icy accumulation is called _______ ice |
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Definition
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Term
| “Wet” accretional growth occurs when supercooled droplets that accrete onto a precipitation particle do not immediately freeze; instead, the water soaks into the particle and solidifies later. The resulting particle is known as a ________ |
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Definition
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Term
| Clouds that tend to produce the largest precipitation particles have strong updrafts, electrification, large depth, and __________________. |
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Definition
| a wide range of drop sizes |
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Term
| In Southeast Asia, the ___________ is a thermally induced, synoptic-scale sea breeze that results in a lot of precipitation because it flows up the Himalayan mountains |
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Definition
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Term
| Onshore winds are winds that blow from a body of water onto land. This type of wind would include the ____ breeze, which is a result of a temperature difference between the ocean and land surfaces during the _____. Another onshore wind, for the west coast of the United States, would be the global-scale ___________, which flow from southwest to northeast (and northwest to southeast in the Southern Hemisphere). |
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Definition
sea daytime Prevailing Westerlies |
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Term
| The Santa Ana wind becomes a hot and dry wind when it descends down the San Gabriel and Tehachapi Mountain ranges and undergoes ________. |
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Definition
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Term
| The _______ is a semipermanent pressure feature of the global circulation located around or near the Gulf of Alaska. |
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Definition
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Term
| The ____________ is seen on satellite pictures as a circumpolar band of clouds (actually, thunderstorms), where the surface Trade Winds in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres meet near the Equator |
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Definition
| Intertropical Convergence Zone |
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Term
| The ________ forms over the subpolar surface front in the higher latitudes. This is a narrow region of high winds, a result of a steep ________. |
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Definition
subpolar jet stream pressure gradient |
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Term
| Every____ years or so, the ________ in the tropics reverse and cause warming of the sea surface off the west coast of Peru. This warming is known as the ________. |
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Definition
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Term
| Air masses originate from _______, which are often areas of semipermanent high pressure. |
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Definition
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Term
| We observe what to be happening to clouds as a warm front approaches? |
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Definition
| The cloud bases gradually decrease in altitude as a warm front approaches. |
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Term
| As a cold front approaches, the winds are from the ________ and the surface pressure is ______. Then, after the front passes, the winds turn and become __________, the temperature goes ____, and the dew point goes ______. |
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Definition
southwest falling northwesterly down down |
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Term
| Rising air parcels that are saturated lose temperature more slowly than when unsaturated because of the release of __________ |
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Definition
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Term
| At the ___________ Level, rising air parcels have become saturated; the base of clouds may be located there. |
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Definition
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Term
| _________ the ground can make the atmosphere more stable. Effectively, the environmental lapse rate becomes ___________. |
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Definition
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Term
| When the atmosphere is absolutely unstable, clouds have this appearance:_________________ |
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Definition
| vertically developed and puffy |
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Term
| For precipitation to begin falling, cloud particles must have grown so their_________ are greater than the speed of the __________ in the cloud |
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Definition
terminal velocities updrafts |
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Term
| Condensation growth of droplets is too slow to form precipitation, so we must depend on __________ instead. |
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Definition
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Term
| __________ occurs when raindrops fall through a shallow layer of subfreezing air and freeze after hitting the ground. If the drops manage to freeze before hitting the ground, we get ________ instead. |
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Definition
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Term
| The onion-like layers inside a hailstone are from alternating “____” and “____” growth processes, which involve accretion |
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Definition
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Term
_________ is the preferred material used to “seed” clouds when attempting to increase precipitation rates.
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Definition
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Term
| The typical sea level atmospheric pressure is ______ mb. |
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Definition
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Term
| _______ are lines connecting points of equal pressure on a weather map. |
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Definition
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Term
A _________ force acts on winds on a rotating Earth, deflecting them to the _______ if they are in the Northern Hemisphere. Winds aloft will also be in _______ balance because there is no friction.
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Definition
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Term
| In the Northern Hemisphere, winds will circulate in a _____________ direction around low pressure areas and spiral _______ if at the Earth’s surface. |
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Definition
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Term
| During the daytime, it is _____ over the ocean and _____ over land, which results in a _____ breeze. [first two blanks involve temperature, not pressure] |
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Definition
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Term
| After a cold front passes by, the surface pressure goes____ somewhat suddenly |
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Definition
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Term
| When a cold occluded front approaches, the weather conditions resemble those of a ______ front; and after it passes, those of a ______ front. |
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Definition
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Term
| On the rare occasion that an occluded front passes through Southern California, it will probably be a______ occlusion. |
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Definition
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Term
| During the developing phase of a midlatitude cyclone, the ___________ is the region between the cold and warm fronts. |
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Definition
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Term
| The maximum intensity of a midlatitude cyclone occurs just as we enter the __________ phase, and the surface pressure in the center of the low is ______. [Occasionally, the mature phase is called the "occluded phase".] |
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Definition
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Term
| West coast U.S. weather is heavily influenced by the __________ Low and the __________ High, both of which are semipermanent pressure cells of the General Circulation. |
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Definition
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Term
The two air masses that influence U.S. west coast weather are _____and _____. [use the two-letter designations]
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Definition
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Term
| In order for a midlatitude cyclone to deepen, the surface low must be located to the _____ of the trough in the jet stream aloft. |
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Definition
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Term
| Air mass thunderstorms begin to lose strength when ______________________, which starts to kill off the updraft |
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Definition
| a precipitation downdraft forms |
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Term
| “Severe” or supercell thunderstorms have strong, _______ updrafts, which is a result of ____________ near fronts and cyclones |
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Definition
tilted vertical wind shear |
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