Exam Questions and CORRECT Answers
Globally, TS are most common - CORRECT ANSWER - Over tropical land masses
to get a thunderstorm, we need each of the following three conditions - CORRECT
ANSWER - Unstable air, a lifting mechanism, and low, level moisture
over tropical oceans, most TS occur - CORRECT ANSWER - just before dawn
An air mass TS has mostly updrafts and surface flow toward the storm at the __________ stage -
CORRECT ANSWER - cumulus
TS are most common over Iowa - CORRECT ANSWER - around sunset
In the US, most thunderstorms occur in____over____ - CORRECT ANSWER - Summer,
florida
An air mass TS typically lasts - CORRECT ANSWER - 30-60 minuntes
Near a dissipating air mass TS with precipitation, the horizontal surface air flow near the TS is
tipically - CORRECT ANSWER - away from the TS
Cumulonimbus literally means - CORRECT ANSWER - heaped rain producing clouds
when flying at night, the best way to be alerted that severe TS are within 50 miles of me is -
CORRECT ANSWER - frequent lightning
,The outer edge of the expanding cold air below a thunderstorm is called - CORRECT
ANSWER - the outflow boundry
TS over the desert southwest are most common during - CORRECT ANSWER - mid-
afternoon
At the outer edge of the expanding cold air (near a TS) we find the - CORRECT ANSWER -
gust front
For a multi-cell TS with low level flow from the south, new cells typically form - CORRECT
ANSWER - south of the mature cell
Severe super cell TS comprise about _____% of all TS - CORRECT ANSWER - 1%
Severe supercell convection is most common - CORRECT ANSWER - over the great plains
during late afternoon and evening in April-June
A shelf cloud is - CORRECT ANSWER - a shelf-like cloud that forms above a gust front in
the updraft south of a multi-cell TS
Compared with air mass TS, multi and supercell TS - CORRECT ANSWER - have more
vertical shear
what does the supercell have that a multicell storm lacks? - CORRECT ANSWER - rotation
For a sever supercell TS to form over the great plains, one would expect the 5,000 AGL wind to
be - CORRECT ANSWER - 190/45
Severe convection is most likely when the atmosphere is warm and ____near the surface and
cold and _____dry aloft, with ____vertical wind shear - CORRECT ANSWER - moist, dry,
strong
, Supercell thunderstorms are most conmon - CORRECT ANSWER - in the warm sector, east
of the cold front
A supercell storm is embedded in an average tropospheric flow from 230 the storm will move to
the - CORRECT ANSWER - East
The low-level jet commonly occurs at a level of around______ AGL and is strongest in the
______ - CORRECT ANSWER - 5,000ft, evening
A wall cloud is - CORRECT ANSWER - a rotating cloud hanging below the main base of a
supercell
In the wind profile of a supercell TS - CORRECT ANSWER - The DDD gets bigger and the
velocity increases
In a downdraft, cold air descends, hits the ground and spreads out horizontally. The leading edge
of the expanding cold air is called the_________ - CORRECT ANSWER - out flow boundry
The flanking line is a line of towering cumulus clouds on the ______ side of a _______
thunderstorm - CORRECT ANSWER - south, supercell
A squall line commonly forms - CORRECT ANSWER - along the dry line east of the cold
front or along the cold front
West of the strongest squall-line precipitation, I would most likely find - CORRECT
ANSWER - lighter precipitation in a trailing stratiform region
Severe squall-line weather is most commonly found along the____edges of a cold frontal band -
CORRECT ANSWER - eastern and southern