Ch. 16 Vocabulary
Cloud
• a collection of small water droplets or
ice crystals suspended in the air,
which forms when the air is cooled
and condensation occurs
2
Humidity
• amount of water vapor in the air
3
Precipitation
• any form of water that falls to the
Earth’s surface from the clouds
4
Weather
• short-term state of the atmosphere,
including temperature, humidity,
precipitation, wind, and visibility
5
Condensation
• the change of state from a gas to a
liquid
6
Relative humidity
• ratio of the amount of water vapor in
the air to the amount of water vapor
needed to reach saturation at a given
temperature
7
Thunderstorm
• usually brief, heavy storm that consists
of rain, strong winds, lightening, and
thunder
8
Air masses
• large body of air where temperature
and moisture content are constant
throughout
9
Front
• boundary between air masse of
different densities and usually
different temperatures
10
Anticyclone
• the rotation of air around a highpressure center in the direction
opposite to Earth’s rotation
11
Lightning
• electric discharge that takes place
between 2 oppositely charges surfaces,
such as between a cloud and the
ground, between 2 clouds, or between
2 parts of the same cloud
12
Thunder
• sound cased by the rapid expansion of
air along an electrical strike
13
Tornado
• destructive, rotating column if air that
has very high wind speeds, is visible as
a funnel-shaped cloud, and touches
the ground
14
Anemometer
• instrument used to measure wind
speed
15
Thermometer
• instrument that measures and
indicates temperature
16
Cyclone
• an area in the atmosphere that has
lower pressure than the surrounding
areas and has winds that spiral toward
the center
17
Barometer
• instrument that measures atmospheric
pressure
18
Hurricane
• severe storm that develops over
tropical oceans and whose strong
winds or more than 120 km/h spiral
toward the intensely low pressure
storm center
19