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Weather
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Rain | Rain --- Water that condenses from water vapor in the atmosphere and falls to Earth as separate drops from clouds. |
Freezing Rain | Freezing Rain --- Freezing rain occurs when the layer of freezing air is so thin that the raindrops do not have enough time to freeze before reaching the ground. |
Sleet | Sleet --- Sleet occurs when snowflakes only partially melt when they fall through a shallow layer of warm air. |
Snow | Snow --- the small, soft, white pieces of ice that sometimes fall from the sky when it is cold, or the white layer on the ground and other surfaces that it forms |
Hail | Hail --- Hail is a form of precipitation consisting of solid ice that forms inside thunderstorm updrafts. |
Rain Gauge | Rain Gauge --- Precipitation is measured in the measuring tube of the Standard Rain gauge with a black laminated measuring stick approximately 24" long. |
Wind | a natural movement of air of any velocity. |
Anemometer | An anemometer is an instrument that measures wind speed and wind pressure. |
Wind vane | Wind vane --- A wind vane (also known as a weather vane) is an instrument that tells you the wind direction. |
Coriolis Effect | Coriolis Effect --- The result of Earth's rotation on weather patterns and ocean currents. |
Trade winds | Trade winds --- The trade winds are just air movements toward the equator. |
Prevailing Westerlies | Prevailing Westerlies --- The westerlies, anti-trades, or prevailing westerlies, are prevailing winds from the west toward the east in the middle latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees latitude. |
Polar Easterlies | Polar Easterlies --- The polar easterlies form when the atmosphere over the poles cools. |
Land Breeze | Land Breeze --- land breeze, a local wind system characterized by a flow from land to water late at night. |
Sea Breeze | Sea Breeze --- sea breeze, a local wind system characterized by a flow from sea to land during the day. |
Jet stream | Jet stream --- The jet stream is a fast, narrow current of air flowing from west to east that encircles the globe (not to be confused with the Gulf Stream which is instead an ocean current of drifting seawater). |
Air Pressure | Air Pressure --- It is the force exerted on a surface by the air above it as gravity pulls it to Earth. |
Barometer | Barometer --- The definition of a barometer is a device used to measure atmospheric pressure. |
Low Pressure | Low Pressure --- a condition of the atmosphere in which the pressure is below average. |
High Pressure | High Pressure --- High-pressure systems, on the other hand, have more air pressure than their surroundings. |
Cold front | Cold front --- A cold front is defined as the transition zone where a cold air mass is replacing a warmer air mass. |
warm front | warm front --- A warm front is defined as the transition zone where a warm air mass is replacing a cold air mass. |
Occluded Front | Occluded Front --- An Occluded Front forms when a warm air mass gets caught between two cold air masses. |
Stationary Front | Stationary Front --- a front between warm and cold air masses that is moving very slowly or not at all. |
El Niño | El Niño --- a warming of the ocean surface, or above-average sea surface temperatures, in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. |