Climatology
, Glossary of words
Mid-latitude cyclones
- Mid-latitude cyclones: a low pressure system that develops in the westerlies and travels from
west to east
- Coriolis force: the effect of wind to be deflected to the left in the southern hemisphere and the
right in the northern hemisphere
- Convergence: the coming of air together
- Divergence: the moving apart of air
- Air mass: a huge amount of air with similar temperature or humidity
- Warm front: the boundary between a mass of cold air and a mass of warm air along which the
warm air rises up above the cold air ahead of it
- Cold front: the boundary between a mass of cold air and a mass of warm air along which the cold
air pushes in under the warm air ahead of it
- Global Circulation: the world scale pattern of pressure and winds developed in response to
unequal latitudinal heating of Earth
- Planetary winds: winds that blow all year over large areas of Earth
- Cold snap: a relatively short period of unusually cold weather
- Cyclogenesis: the development and strengthening of a cyclone
- Jet stream: a narrow band of fast moving upper air wind
- Warm sector: the mass of warm air behind the warm front and ahead of the cold front in a mid-
latitude cyclone
- Occluded front: the front formed when the cold front of a mid-latitude cyclone catches up with
the warm front, forcing the air in the warm sector to rise
- Backs: a change in wind direction in an anticlockwise direction
- Cold front occlusion: the weather processes associated with an occluded front in which the cold
air behind the cold front is much cooler than the cold air ahead of warm front it has caught up with,
and the warm front is lifted off the ground
- Warm front occlusion: the weather processes associated with an occluded front in which the cold
air behind the cold front is not as cold as the cold air ahead of warm front it has caught up with, and
the cold front is lifted off the ground
Tropical cyclones
- Tropical cyclone: a low-pressure system that develops over warm tropical water and moves in the
easterlies
- Latent heat: 'hidden' heat energy absorbed and stored in water vapour during the process of
evaporation. It is released during condensation
- Spirals: three dimensional curves
- Eye: central cloudless and calm area of a tropical cyclone
- Eyewall: the tall cumulonimbus clouds that surround the eye of a tropical cyclone
- Quadrant: a quarter of a circle
- Dissipate: weaken
- Friction: a force that slows down the movement of an object in contact with another object
- Regenerate: form again, strengthen
- Vortex: A mass of spinning fluid or air
, - Make landfall: the term used to describe the arrival of the eye of a tropical cyclone over the coast
- Storm surge: an unusually high water level at the coast caused by an approaching tropical cyclone
- Tornado: a violently rotating column of high speed winds extending from a thunderstorm to the
ground
- Water Spout: a weak tornado that forms at sea in association with the storm clouds of a tropical
cyclone
Subtropical anticyclones
- onshore: from the sea onto the land
- subsiding: sinking
- relative humidity: a measure of the amount of water vapour contained in air at a certain
temperature compared with the amount of water vapour that air at that temperature can hold
- temperature inversion: an increase in temperature with altitude rather than the usual decrease
- subtropical anticyclones: high pressure cells of the general calculation centered at about 30
degrees north and south
- adiabatic warming: an increase in temperature associated with subsiding air as it is compressed at
lower altitudes where pressure is increased
- adiabatic cooling: a decrease in air temperature associated with rising air as it expands at higher
altitudes where pressure is reduced
- anticyclonic circulation: airflow around a high pressure center that is clockwise in the NH and
anticlockwise in the SH
- Escarpment: sloping land between the plateau and the coastal plain
- Ridging: the development of a long narrow extension of a HP cell
- Moisture front: the boundary between two air masses of different humidity
- Line thunderstorms: storms that develop along the moisture front
- Convectional thunderstorm: storms that develop when surface air is heated and rises
- trough of a low pressure: a long narrow extension of a low pressure system
- Coastal low: small low pressure system that develops on the coast and moves along it from west to
east
- Dew point temperature: the temperature at which water vapour i the air starts to condense
valley climates
- Aspect: the direction in which a slope faces
- Angle of incidence: the angle at which the sun's rays strike the surface of the earth
- Shadow zone: area of land which does not receive sunlight
- Valley wind: wind that blows up a valley toward the mountains during the day
- Anabatic wind: wind that blows up the valley slopes during the day
- Terrestrial radiation: long wave radiation from Earth
- Mountain wind: wind that blows from the mountains down a valley at night
- Katabatic wind: wind that blows down the valley slopes at night
- Thermal belt: layer of warm air in the middle of a valley above the cold air in the bottom of the valley
- Frost pocket: a low-lying area such as in the bottom of a valley where frost forms
- Radiation fog: fog caused by condensation in air that has cooled to dew point temperature as a
result of the loss of heat through terrestrial radiation
- Smog: fog mixed with smoke
- Pollution plume: visible flow of pollutants from a factory smoke stack
- Acid rain: rain that is a weak acid formed by the water mixing with pollutants such as sulphur dioxide
and nitrogen oxides
, Glossary of words
Mid-latitude cyclones
- Mid-latitude cyclones: a low pressure system that develops in the westerlies and travels from
west to east
- Coriolis force: the effect of wind to be deflected to the left in the southern hemisphere and the
right in the northern hemisphere
- Convergence: the coming of air together
- Divergence: the moving apart of air
- Air mass: a huge amount of air with similar temperature or humidity
- Warm front: the boundary between a mass of cold air and a mass of warm air along which the
warm air rises up above the cold air ahead of it
- Cold front: the boundary between a mass of cold air and a mass of warm air along which the cold
air pushes in under the warm air ahead of it
- Global Circulation: the world scale pattern of pressure and winds developed in response to
unequal latitudinal heating of Earth
- Planetary winds: winds that blow all year over large areas of Earth
- Cold snap: a relatively short period of unusually cold weather
- Cyclogenesis: the development and strengthening of a cyclone
- Jet stream: a narrow band of fast moving upper air wind
- Warm sector: the mass of warm air behind the warm front and ahead of the cold front in a mid-
latitude cyclone
- Occluded front: the front formed when the cold front of a mid-latitude cyclone catches up with
the warm front, forcing the air in the warm sector to rise
- Backs: a change in wind direction in an anticlockwise direction
- Cold front occlusion: the weather processes associated with an occluded front in which the cold
air behind the cold front is much cooler than the cold air ahead of warm front it has caught up with,
and the warm front is lifted off the ground
- Warm front occlusion: the weather processes associated with an occluded front in which the cold
air behind the cold front is not as cold as the cold air ahead of warm front it has caught up with, and
the cold front is lifted off the ground
Tropical cyclones
- Tropical cyclone: a low-pressure system that develops over warm tropical water and moves in the
easterlies
- Latent heat: 'hidden' heat energy absorbed and stored in water vapour during the process of
evaporation. It is released during condensation
- Spirals: three dimensional curves
- Eye: central cloudless and calm area of a tropical cyclone
- Eyewall: the tall cumulonimbus clouds that surround the eye of a tropical cyclone
- Quadrant: a quarter of a circle
- Dissipate: weaken
- Friction: a force that slows down the movement of an object in contact with another object
- Regenerate: form again, strengthen
- Vortex: A mass of spinning fluid or air
, - Make landfall: the term used to describe the arrival of the eye of a tropical cyclone over the coast
- Storm surge: an unusually high water level at the coast caused by an approaching tropical cyclone
- Tornado: a violently rotating column of high speed winds extending from a thunderstorm to the
ground
- Water Spout: a weak tornado that forms at sea in association with the storm clouds of a tropical
cyclone
Subtropical anticyclones
- onshore: from the sea onto the land
- subsiding: sinking
- relative humidity: a measure of the amount of water vapour contained in air at a certain
temperature compared with the amount of water vapour that air at that temperature can hold
- temperature inversion: an increase in temperature with altitude rather than the usual decrease
- subtropical anticyclones: high pressure cells of the general calculation centered at about 30
degrees north and south
- adiabatic warming: an increase in temperature associated with subsiding air as it is compressed at
lower altitudes where pressure is increased
- adiabatic cooling: a decrease in air temperature associated with rising air as it expands at higher
altitudes where pressure is reduced
- anticyclonic circulation: airflow around a high pressure center that is clockwise in the NH and
anticlockwise in the SH
- Escarpment: sloping land between the plateau and the coastal plain
- Ridging: the development of a long narrow extension of a HP cell
- Moisture front: the boundary between two air masses of different humidity
- Line thunderstorms: storms that develop along the moisture front
- Convectional thunderstorm: storms that develop when surface air is heated and rises
- trough of a low pressure: a long narrow extension of a low pressure system
- Coastal low: small low pressure system that develops on the coast and moves along it from west to
east
- Dew point temperature: the temperature at which water vapour i the air starts to condense
valley climates
- Aspect: the direction in which a slope faces
- Angle of incidence: the angle at which the sun's rays strike the surface of the earth
- Shadow zone: area of land which does not receive sunlight
- Valley wind: wind that blows up a valley toward the mountains during the day
- Anabatic wind: wind that blows up the valley slopes during the day
- Terrestrial radiation: long wave radiation from Earth
- Mountain wind: wind that blows from the mountains down a valley at night
- Katabatic wind: wind that blows down the valley slopes at night
- Thermal belt: layer of warm air in the middle of a valley above the cold air in the bottom of the valley
- Frost pocket: a low-lying area such as in the bottom of a valley where frost forms
- Radiation fog: fog caused by condensation in air that has cooled to dew point temperature as a
result of the loss of heat through terrestrial radiation
- Smog: fog mixed with smoke
- Pollution plume: visible flow of pollutants from a factory smoke stack
- Acid rain: rain that is a weak acid formed by the water mixing with pollutants such as sulphur dioxide
and nitrogen oxides
