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Weather tools/clouds
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| cumulus | puffy with flat bottoms and round tops that signal fair weather |
| cirrus | wispy, feathery clouds made of ice crystals that form at high levels |
| stratus | clouds that form in flat layers and often cover much of the sky |
| nimbus | a rain cloud |
| fog | a stratus cloud that forms when air is cooled to its dew point near the ground |
| anemometer | an instrument used to measure wind speed |
| wind vane | an instrument used to measure wind direction |
| thermometer | an instrument used to measure temperature |
| sling psychrometer | tool made of a wet and dry thermometer that measures relative humidity and requires a table to interpret the two temperatures |
| barometer | an instrument that measures atmospheric pressure |
| rain guage | an instrument used to measure precipitation |
| weather map | a map that uses symbols to show weather data |
| weather satellites | type of satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the earth |
| weather radar | is an instrument that sends pulses of electromagnetic energy into the atmosphere to find precipitation, determine its motion and intensity, and identify the precipitation type such as rain, sleet, snow, or hail |
| isobar | line on top of a map connecting points having the same barometric reading at a given time |
| isotherm | a line on a weather map that joins places that have the same tempeture |
| cumulonimbus | a thunderstorm cloud high winds can flatten the top of the cloud into an anvil like shape cumulonimbus clouds are associated with heavy rain, snow, hail, lightning, and even tornadoes the anvil usually points in the direction of the storm is moving |
| relative humidity | the amount of water vapor in the air at any given time is usually less than that required to saturate the air expressed as a percentage |