| A | B |
|---|
| Climate | Average of temperature, air pressure and precipitation over a long period of time. |
| Meteorology | Scientific study of the atmosphere and how it interacts with the surface of the Earth. |
| Specific Heat | Amount of heat energy required to heat 1 gram of a substance 1 ° Celsius. Water is the highest. |
| Sea Breeze | A wind that forms as land heats up during the day while the oceans remain cool. This creates a local high pressure over the ocean and a local low pressure over the land. Wind travels from high pressure (oceans) to low pressure (land) creating a breeze. |
| Land Breeze | A wind that forms as land cools down during the night while the oceans remain warm. This creates a local low pressure over the ocean and a local high pressure over the land. Wind travels from high pressure (land) to low pressure (oceans) creating a breeze. |
| Orographic Effect | Occurs when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a high elevation due to mountains. This creates a cooling and condensing effect on the air mass on the windward side of the mountain making if rain. |
| Windward | The side of a mountain range that is facing the wind. Usually rains at this location. |
| Leeward | The side of a mountain range that is not facing the wind. Usually is dry at this location. |
| Rain Shadow | Area on the leeward side of a mountain range where very little rain occurs. |
| Air Mass | A large area of air on Earth. This can be warm, wet, cold, dry, high pressure, low pressure, etc. |
| Moisture | Trace amounts of liquid water in an air mass or cloud. |
| Humidity | Amount of water vapor in an air mass. |
| Relative Humidity | Percentage of water vapor vs. dry air on an air mass. |
| Sling Psychrometer | An instrument used to help calculate the relative humidity and/or dewpoint of an air mass. |
| Dry Bulb | The undisturbed thermometer of a sling psychrometer. |
| Wet bulb | The bulb of a thermometer that is wrapped with a wet cloth on a sling psychrometer. |
| Dewpoint | A specific temperature where an air mass is saturated with water vapor and must condense into liquid water. |
| High Pressure (anticyclone) | An air mass region where the pressure is higher than the surrounding pressure. This creates winds going away from it. Due to the coriolis effect, winds go clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. Usually associated with sunny, cool and dry conditions. |
| Low Pressure (cyclone) | An air mass region where the pressure is lower than the surrounding pressure. This creates winds going towards it. Due to the coriolis effect, winds go counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. Usually associated with cloudy, warm and wet conditions. |
| Hurricane | A name given to a massive low pressure storm system that has formed in the North Atlantic Ocean |
| Prevailing windbelts | Large scale general wind patterns on Earth. Defined by the coriolis effect and descending or rising air masses. |
| Polar/arctic region | The cold location (high latitudes) where an air mass starts. |
| Tropical region | The warm location (low latitudes) where an air mass starts. |
| Continental region | An air mass that started over land. This makes a dry air mass. |
| Maritime region | An air mass that started over water. This makes a moist air mass. |
| Pressure gradient (isobars) | Lines of equal pressure on a map. If they are close together then the gradient will be large (pressure/distance). |
| Descending air | A dry air mass that is moving from high in the atmosphere to the surface of the Earth. |
| Rising air | A moist air mass that rises from the surface of the Earth up into the atmosphere |
| Station Model | A model on a weather map that shows temperature, dewpoint, air pressure, wind speed and direction, cloud cover and air pressure change. |
| Cold Fronts | The frontal boundary of a cold air mass moving across the Earth. |
| Warm Fronts | The frontal boundary of a warm air mass moving across the Earth. |
| Adiabatic Cooling | Process that creates clouds in the orographic effect. An air mass rises up a mountain and cools. This cooling makes the air mass get to the dewpoint and then clouds form. |
| Storm Track | The predictable path storms or any air mass takes. Generally from west to east in the U.S. |
| Cloud | A portion of an air mass that is saturated with water vapor making condensation (the white looking thing). |
| Condensation Nuclei | Small particle required to be in the air for water vapor to condense. This is needed to make any cloud. |
