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Clouds What they tell us about the weather Spring funnel cloud over Willard, Utah 2003 Cloud coverage 581-586 How to show Cloud Coverage • On a weather map meteorologists use circles shaded differently to show the cloud coverage. Determine Cloud Coverage • 1st Way: look out side • 2nd Way: Satellite Imagery • Infrared • Visible • Water Vapor Infrared Satellite Imagery • Measure the heat/energy from the clouds • Strong thunderstorms tops will appear cold. Water Vapor Satellite Imagery • Measure the water vapor in the upper atmosphere. • Highest humidity will be the white areas and the lowest humidity areas are the dark regions. • Predict heavy precipitation Visible Satellite Imagery • The Sunlight bouncing off the clouds making them appear white (sunrise hasn’t happened in parts that are dark). Cloud Types Why learn about clouds • The purpose of learning about clouds is to understand what type of weather is associated with each. • Knowing the clouds will help you predict what type of weather is coming or could happen. • When could you use this? • Boating • Camping Cirrus • White, feathery, wispy • First sign of an approaching warm front Cirrostratus • Sheet like • Cover entire sky • When light pass through the ice crystals it can produce a ring or halo. • Sign that a warm front is getting closer Cumulus • Puffy, flat base • Form when moist, warm air bubbles vertically from Earth’s surface Cumulonimbus • Top shaped like an anvil • Very dense with water • Weather • Hail, lightning, tornadoes, thunder, and heavy rain • Altitude: A few hundred meters to 12,000 meters Stratus • Gray color and flat • Develops horizontally, covers entire sky • Little or no precipitation Altostratus • Gray looking • Dense sheet like layers, see sun through it Nimbostratus • Dark, gray • Continuous precipitation Air Masses Air Mass Types and locations • Air Mass: Large body of air of similar temperature and humidity • By putting the symbols together you are able to describe both the temperature and moisture of the air mass Symbol Name Type c Continental Dry m Maritime Wet P Polar Cold T Tropical warm When two air masses meet… • Frontal zone/Front: the area where two air masses of different temperatures meet • What happens when a cold and warm air mass meet? Which will go over the other and why? • The warm air mass will always go over the other because the cold air is more dense. • Warm air goes over the cold. Uplifting of warm air (which may contain much moisture) causes warm air to cool, which leads to condensation and the possibility of precipitation along the frontal boundary. Weather Fronts Cold Front • Cold dry stable air mass displaces moist unstable subtropical air mass. • Symbol is blue triangles, arrows point the direction the front is moving. Weather Elements Prior to Front Contact with the Front Temperature Warm Cooling suddenly Cold and getting colder Atmospheric Pressure Decreasing steadily Leveling off then Increasing increasing steadily Winds South to southeast Variable and gusty West to northwest Showers Heavy rain or snow, hail sometimes Showers then clearing Cold Front Precipitation Clouds Cirrus and Cumulus and cirrostratus cumulonimbus changing later to cumulus and cumulonimbus After front passes Cumulus Warm Front • Warm, subtropical, moist, air mass replaces a slower moving cold, dry, polar air mass • Symbol: red line with red semi-circles, semi-circles point to the direction the front is moving. Warm Front Weather Element Prior to the front Contact with the Front Front has passed Temperature Cool Warming suddenly Warmer then leveling off Atmospheric Pressure Decreasing steadily Leveling off Slight rise followed by a decrease Winds South to southeast Variable South to southwest Precipitation Showers, snow, sleet or drizzle Light drizzle None Clouds Cirrus, cirrostratus, altostratus, nimbostratus, and then stratus Stratus, sometimes cumulonimbus Clearing with scattered stratus, sometimes scattered cumulonimbus Occluded • Fast moving cold front overtakes a slower moving warm front • Two types • Cold: “air behind the front is colder than the air ahead of the front.” • Warm: air behind is warmer than the air ahead of the front. • Symbol: mixture of purple triangles and semi-circle Stationary Boundaries • “Frontal zones where air masses are not moving against each other…” • “Wind blow towards the front from opposite directions” • Symbol: mixture of blue triangles and red semicircles Tornados • Movie • How they work