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weather vocab
Ch.2 vocabulary
Term | Definition |
---|---|
climate | the weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period |
humidity | the state or quality of being humid |
relative humidity | the amount of water vapor present in air expressed as a percentage of the amount needed for saturation at the same temperature. |
cumulus cloud | cumulus clouds are puffy clouds. The base of each cloud is almost always flat and may be only 3300 feet above the ground. The top of the cloud has rounded tower. |
stratus cloud | Stratus clouds are grayish clouds that usually cover the hole sky. They resemble fog that does not reach the ground. Usually no precipitation falls from stratus clouds. |
cirrus cloud | Cirrus clouds are thin clouds blown by high winds into long streamers. They are considered "high clouds" forming above 20,000 ft. Cirrus clouds usually move across the sky from west to east. They generally mean fair to pleasant weather. |
cyclone | a system of winds rotating inward to an area of low atmospheric pressure, with northern hemisphere or clockwise southern hemisphere circulation. |
anticyclone | a weather system with high atmospheric pressure at its center, around which air slowly circulates in a northern hemisphere or southern hemisphere direction. Anticyclones carry fair, fine weather |
barometer | an instrument measuring atmospheric pressure, used especially in forecasting the weather and determining altitude. |
anemometer | an instrument for measuring the speed of the wind, or of any current of gas. |