| A | B |
|---|
| rain shadow | - dry, leeward side of a mountain range, resulting from the adiabatic warming of descending air |
| Relative humidity | the ratio between the amount of water vapor in air of a given temperature and the maximum amount of water vapor the air could hold at that temperature is saturated |
| ridge | an elongated area of high pressure |
| Santa Ana winds | always dry often warm winds that blow into southern California from the east and north east because of a large high pressure system |
| saturation | occurs when air of a given temp is holding all the water vapor it can possibly hold |
| Siberian high | primary winter system that forms over central asia because of the continental influence |
| Sleet (freezing rain) | condensation falling then freezing |
| snow | forms like rain but dewtemp is below freezing |
| Southern oscillation | the systematic variation in atmospheric pressure between the eastern and western pacific ocean |
| Specific humidity | mass of water vapor present per unit mass of air expressed as grams per kilogram of moist air |
| Squall line | narrow line of rapidly advancing storm clouds, strong winds, and heavy precipitation; usually develops in front of a fast-moving cold front |
| Stability | condition of air when it is cooler than the surrounding atmosphere and resists the tendency to rise; the lapse rate of the surrounding atmosphere is less than that of stable air |
| Stable air | condition of parcel when it is colder than surrounding atmosphere and resists the tendency to rise |
| Storm surges | rise in sea level due to wind and reduced air pressure during a hurricane or other severe storm |
| Storm tracks | path frequently traveled by cyclonic storms as they move in a generally eastward direction from their point of origin |
| sublimation | solid to gas or gas to solid |
| Subpolar low | east west trending belts or cells of low atmospheri pressure located in the upper middle latitudes |
| Subtropical high | cells of high atmospheric pressure generally centered over the eastern portions of the oceans in the vicinity of 30*N and 30*S latitude; source of the westerlies poleward and the trades equator ward |
| Three states of water | solid, liquid, gas (vapor) |
| Thunder | sound produced by the rapidly expanding, heated air along the channel of a lightening discharge |
