| A | B |
|---|
| Air mass | Huge body of air with same temperature, humidity, and air pressure at any given height |
| Anticyclone | High-pressure center of dry air |
| Barometer | Instrument used to measure changes in air pressure |
| Continental (air mass) | Dry air mass that forms over land |
| Coriolis effect | The change that the Earth's rotation causes in the motion of objects and that explains how winds curve |
| Cyclone | Swirling center of low air pressure |
| Front | Boundary where unlike air masses meet but do not mix |
| Global winds | Winds that blow steadily from specific directions over long distances |
| Hurricane | Tropical storm that has winds of about 119 km per hour or higher |
| Isobar | Line on a weather map that joins places that have the same air pressure |
| Jet streams | Bands of high-speed winds about 10 kilometers above Earth's surface |
| Lightning | A sudden spark, or energy discharge, caused when electrical charges jump between parts of a cloud, between nearby clouds, or between a cloud and the ground. |
| Maritime (air mass) | Humid air mass that forms over oceans |
| Meteorologist | Scientist who studies the causes of weather and tries to predict it |
| Occluded front | Front where a warm air mass is caught between two cooler air masses and is cut off from the ground |
| Polar (air mass) | Cold air mass that forms in one of the areas near the poles (north or south) and has high air pressure |
| Air pressure | Amount of force pushing on an area of the Earth's surface by the air above it |
| Storm | Violent disturbance in the atmosphere |
| Temperature | Measure of how hot or cold an object is compared to a reference point |
| Thunderstorm | Small storm often accompanied by heavy precipitation and frequent thunder and lightning |
| Tornado | Rapidly whirling, funnel-shaped cloud that reaches down to touch Earth's surface |
| Tropical (air mass) | Warm air mass that forms in the tropics and has low air pressure |
| Weather | Condition of Earth's atmosphere at a particular time and place |
| Climate | The average, year-after-year conditions of temperature, precipitation, winds, and clouds in an area |
| Wind | Horizontal movement of air from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure |
| Storm surge | "Dome" of water that sweeps across the coast where a hurricane lands |
| Isotherm | Line on a weather map that joins places that have the same temperature |
| Stationary front | Boundary where a cold air mass and a warm air mass meet, but neither one can move the other. so the air masses remain stalled in the same place for a time |
| Precipitation | Any form of water that falls from clouds and reaches Earth's surface |
| Cumulus (clouds) | Fluffy, white clouds, usually with flat bottoms, that look like rounded piles of cotton. |
| Cirrus (clouds) | Wispy, feathery clouds made of ice crystals that form at high levels. |
| Stratus (clouds) | Clouds that form in flat layers and often cover much of the sky. |
