Question | Answer |
Air Mass | A huge body of air that has similar temperature, pressure, and humidity throughout |
Maritime | A humid air mass that forms over oceans |
Occluded | Cut off, as the warm air mass at an occluded front is cut off from the ground by cooler air beneath it |
Tropical | A warm air mass that forms in the tropics and has low air pressure |
Continental | A dry air mass that forms over land |
Cyclone | A swirling center of low air pressure |
Polar | A cold air mass that forms north of 50° north latitude or south of 50° south latitude and has high pressure |
Front | The air where air masses meet and do not mix |
Anticyclone | A high-pressure center of dry air |
Storm | A violent disturbance in the atmosphere |
Tornado | A rapidly whirling, funnel-shaped cloud that reaches down from a storm cloud to touch Earth's surface, usually leaving a destructive path |
Storm Surge | A dome of water that sweeps across the coast where a hurricane lands |
Lightning | A sudden spark, or energy discharge, caused when electrical charges jump between parts of a cloud or between a cloud and the ground |
Hurricane | A tropical storm that has winds of 119 kilometers per hour or higher; typically about 600 kilometers across |
Evacuate | To move away temporarily |
Flash Flood | A sudden, violent flood |
Meteorologist | Scientists who study the causes of weather and try to predict it |
El Nino | An event that occurs every two to seven years in the Pacific Ocean, during which winds shift and push warm surface water towards the coast of South America; it can cause dramatic climate changes |
Isobar | Lines on a map joining places that have the same air pressure |
Isotherm | Lines on a map joining places that have the same temperature |