1. By William Deming

2.  When heat isn’t added or subtracted, they
result in being compressed or expanding
 Air expands as you elevate your position in the
atmosphere
 Air expands as it cools and air compresses as it
warms

3.  Elevated terrains act as barriers to air flow
 Once air has moved to the leeward side of say a
mountain, most of it’s moisture has been lost.
This affect is why most areas may be cut off by
mountains yet be completely different on both
sides. Ex: wet and moist on the windward, and
then hot and dry on the leeward

4.  It is When masses of warm air and cold air
collide
 Cooler denser air acts as a barrier which the
warmer less dense air rises over.

5.  When ever air in the lower atmosphere flows
together
 Because the flowing air cannot go down, cloud
formations may occur

6.  During summer days unequal heating of earths
surface may cause small areas of air to be
heated up more then the surface it surrounds
 This air will move upward since it is heated,
helping animals like birds or humans during
activities like hang gliding

7.  Stable air resists vertical movement
 Unstable air rises freely
 Clouds formed from the forced movement of
this stable air are typically widespread and
have little chance of precipitation. Clouds of
unstable air typically tower and can cause
thunderstorms

8.  When water vapor in the air changes into a
liquid or a gas turning into a liquid state
 Ex: rain, dew, fog, or clouds
 Occurs when a vapor is cooled or compressed
to its’ saturation limit

9.  Cirrus – Clouds in the atmosphere that are
shown and are explained as thin wispy strands
 Cumulus – More vertical in their development,
they have edges that are easily visible
 Stratus - Flat and hazy feature less clouds that
may produce a drizzle of rain

10.  Ex: Cirrus, Cirrostratus, and cirrocumulus –
6000 meters
 Not considered precipitation making clouds

11.  Altocumulus – 4000 meters
 A light snow or drizzle may happen with these
clouds

12.  Stratus, stratocumulus, and nimbostratus –
2000 meters
 May produce light precipitation

13.  Bases in low height range, but they often reach
upwards to the middle or high ranges
 Can produce very strong rain showers or
thunderstorms

14.  No physical difference between fog and a
cloud, just height
 Can form on cool nights where earths surface is
cooled very fast by radiation . Later in the night
a thin layer of air is cooled before dew point
and becomes denser, thus fog
 Cool air over warm water may evaporate and
help create saturation , when this meets cold
air, it condenses with warm air below

15.  The creation of precipitation in the cold mid to
upper layer clouds.
 Creates cold rain or ice crystals
 Super cooled water droplets or ice crystals
must be in the cloud together for the BP to
occur

16.  Water absorbing particles like salt can remove
the water vapor from the air and help create
large raindrops
 When these droplets move through a cloud,
they form together with smaller droplets.

17.  Rain – Requires a think layer of the atmosphere
that is above freezing and is caused by
condensation of water vapors turned into
droplets
 Snow – Forms in a motion of upward air near a
low pressure system where the temperature
must be below freezing

18.  Sleet – clear ice formed by a layer of air above
freezing temperatures that lays over a
subfreezing layer near the ground
 Glaze – occurs when freezing rain hits a surface
and creates a formation or sheet of ice around
or on an object
 Hail – A solid precipitation, which forms in
strong thunderstorms, mainly ones with very
strong updrafts