2. Adiabatic temperature changes
(expansion and cooling)
Wet adiabatic rate is the process of air releasing
latent heat as the process of condensation starts.
When you travel up in the atmosphere there are
fewer gas molecules, since there are fewer
molecules the air begins to expand and cool
when air goes deeper into our Earth the air
pressure increases and the air condenses this rate
of heating or cooling is called dry adiabatic rate.
3. Orographic lifting
When any raised land or manmade
feature blocks air flow orographic lifting
begins.
As air goes up a mountain side the
adiabatic cooling begins and creates
precipitation
4. Frontal Wedging
When warm and cold air collides a front
begins to form. At these fronts cool
dense air acts as a barrier which blocks
the warmer less dense air from raising
this is called frontal wedging.
5. Convergence
If air is coming from more than one
direction it have only one place to go
and that is up.
When the air gets lifted into the air it
leads to adiabatic cooling and possible
cloud formation.
6. Localized Convective Lifting
Is the constant flow of warmer air during
days of uneven heating. This uneven heating
cause thermal to form these thermal are air
pockets that carry things in the air once the
warm air have stopped flowing a cloud will
form.
7. Stability
Air that resists moving vertically is called
stable air Unstable air rises freely
Clouds will not form where stable conditions
are present. Stable air clouds are very wide
but have small vertical height.
Unstable clouds are high over the surface
and generate thunderstorm or maybe a
tornado.
8. Condensation
Condensation is a process that happens when
water vapor in the air changes to a liquid(air
must be saturated)
If there is not a surface of water vapor to
condense on condensation will not happen
Condensation nuclei are the surface needed for
water vapor to condense if nuclei are not there
a relative humidity much 100 percent is needed
9. Types of clouds
There are 3 basic forms of cloud cirrus,
cumulus, and stratus clouds are put into these
categories based on the form and height.
Cirrus- clouds that are high and thin have a
faded streak like appearance
Stratus-are very flat and act as a blanket
because the cover they entire sky
Cumulus-these clouds are made up of many
other cloud masses in my opinion they look like
explosions with a flat base.
10. High clouds
3 types of clouds are in the “high cloud”
region cirrus, cirrostratus, and
cirrocumulus
All high clouds are thin white streaks
often made of ice crystal
These types of clouds are often called
precipitation makers but if these clouds
begin to cover most of the sky they
could warm oncoming rain clouds.
11. Middle clouds
Middle clouds are composed of rounded
masses
Altocumulus are large dense cloud
These clouds create grayish white
sheets across the sky
12. Low Clouds
Three member stratus, stratocumulus,
nimbostratus
Dark fogy layer of clouds
Produce light precipitation
13. Clouds of vertical development
These clouds do not fit into the 3 cloud
height categories
Associated with unstable air
14. Fog
Created by radiation cooling or the
movement of air above a cold surface.
Fog is defined by having its base close to
or on the ground
Cooling, causes clouds when warm moist
air moves over a cold surface (land or
water) then is carried into show by
prevailing winds also fog can be caused at
night when the earth cools quickly and air
is in contact with the ground
15. Cold cloud precipitation
Is formed by the Bergeron process
Ice crystals grow at the expense of
cloud droplets until they are large
enough to fall
16. Warm Cloud Precipitation
Is formed by the collision and coalescence
process
When the relative humidity is below 100%
water absorbing particles such as salt remove
water droplets from cloud. These removed
drop run into other small slower droplets and
fall to the ground.
17. Rain and Snow
Rain is a drop of water that come from
clouds and are bigger the .5mm
Rain is caused by melting ice crystals in
temperatures above 4 degrees Celsius
Snow is formed at very low temperature
and is made up of ice crystals that join
together into larger snowflakes
18. Sleet, Glaze and Hail
Sleet is the fall of small articles of clear or
see threw ice for this to form a layer of air
with temperature below freezing must
overlie and subfreezing layer.
Glaze happens when rain drops become
“super-cooled” below 0 degrees Celsius
Hail- hailstones begin in cumulonimbus
clouds and grow bigger by collecting super-
cooled water droplets as they fall through
other clouds