Homework Questions #2:
Due: Wednesday, February 11
1. What type of atmospheric motion “causes” weather?
2. Rising air causes ___________________________ weather and sinking air causes
_____________________________ weather.
3. As air rises it _______________________________ so that water vapor eventually
_____________________________________, forming _______________________.
4. What is the characteristic of water that makes it a unique element on earth and also
why it plays such an important role in extreme weather?
5. When cloud formation occurs there is a release of ___________________________,
which provides the energy for some types of extreme weather.
6. What are the three general causes of vertical motion in the atmosphere?
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7. What force generates the wind and determines how fast it will blow?
8. Coriolis force is an ___________________________ force that exists due to
_______________________________________________.
9. Coriolis force only changes ________________________________________ not its
______________________.
10. What are the two forces that are generally in balance (in a horizontal plane; called
geostrophic balance) above earth’s surface?
11. Because of this balance (#10) wind flows __________________________ around low
pressure systems (cyclones) and _____________________________ around high
pressure systems (anticyclones).
12. What is a jet stream?
13. At what level of the atmosphere are the winds in a jet stream the strongest?
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14. What type of “gradient” between the tropics and the poles results in the pressure
differences that creates jet streams and determines how strong the winds in them will
be?
15. Which type of extreme weather, extratropical cyclones or tropical cyclones
(hurricanes) are associated with jet streams?
16. _____________________________ at the tropopause results in removal of air from
the atmospheric column leading to upward motion in the troposphere and eventual
development of surface low pressure.
17. Where, relative to a “trough” in the jet stream, is a surface low pressure system
most likely to develop. (Identify this location in a wave diagram like the one I drew in
class)
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18. What is the additional force, only present to a significant degree at earth’s
surface, that results in convergence into a surface low pressure system to
complete the vertical circulation associated with these systems?
19. A surface _______________ pressure system is a cyclone and a surface
__________________ pressure system is an anticyclone. (see note packet 2, V A
and B, p. 13)
20. Winds flow ________________________ around a cyclone and
___________________________________ around an anticyclone in the Northern
Hemisphere. (see note packet 2, V A and B, p. 13)
21. Fronts are boundaries between _____________________________. The boundary
between cold air to the north and warm air to the south in midlatitudes along which
the jet stream and ECs form is called the ______________________ front.
22. As an EC develops, the counterclockwise circulation around the surface low
generates smaller-scale fronts, mainly _______________________ fronts extending
to the west of the low and _____________________ fronts extending to the east of
the low.
23. A cold front is represented on a surface weather map as a
__________________________________________________________
and a warm front is represented as a
__________________________________________________________.
24. Cold front’s have a _____________________ slope which causes the precipitation to
fall in a ___________________________ band.
25. a) Precipitation caused by a cold front is most frequently in the form of __________.
b) Why?
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26. Compared to cold fronts, warm fronts have a ______________________ slope and
they move at a _________________ speed which is why the precipitation associated
with a warm front tends to cover a _________________ area and be of lighter
intensity than a cold front.
27. With a winter EC, as one moves from north to south relative to a warm front the
precipitation transitions from ____________________ to ______________________
to ___________________________________ to _________________________.
28. Dry lines act like cold fronts and lift air as they move east because _______________
air is heavier than ____________________ air.
29. What type of extreme weather is associated with dry lines?
30. Where (geographically) are dry lines most common?
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