CloudFormationBy Quincy Rogers

Orogrophic Lifting

• An easier way to explain this would be the windward and leeward side of mountain. One side gets all the precipitation, and the other side gets nothing.

http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Ce-Cr/Climate-Moderator-Water-as-a.html

Fronts

• A boundary between colliding masses of warm and cold air.

• Less dense air rises

Convergence

• When air rises because the air under it flows together

http://www.ec.gc.ca/ouragans-hurricanes/AB062B74-8C14-4A80-BC38-E4F3F9168B55/1.jpg

Localized Lifting

• When un-equal heating warms up one pocket of air more than the others , making that air less dense

Stableness

• Air that sits still • Stable air stays in one place while

unstable air rises and moves around

Condensation

• For condensation to happen, there needs to a surface

• The air needs to be saturated• When this happens in he air we call

clouds

http://aumusiclibrary.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/rain.jpg

Cloud types and Precipitation

• Cirrus- high up, white, and are thin. Look like wispy feathery cloudy

• Cumulus- big fluffy clouds that have a flat bottom

• Stratus- cover much and often most of the sky. No distinctive individual clouds

http://images.usatoday.com/weather/photos/clouds/cirrus2.jpg

Fog

• A cloud that is so heavy it fell to the ground

Precipitation

• For precipitation to form, the water vapor in the air must get bigger by one million times

Bergeron Process

• Theory that describes the precipitation of cold clouds

• Water below 0C is said to be super cooled

• Water in this stage will automatically freeze with contact

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Bergeron_process.svg/220px-Bergeron_process.svg.png

Collision Coalescence

• When air is super saturated with ice• Theory that describes the formation

of raindrops

High Clouds

• Bases reside between 16000 and 45000 feet

• Because of the altitude they are mainly composed of ice crystals

• Clouds in the region would be cirrus, cirrocumulus, and cirrostratus

Middle Clouds

• Bases found at 6,500 to 23,000 feet• Main clouds here are altostratus, alto

nimbus, and nimbostratus clouds• Their height depends on the region

they form

Low Clouds

Rain and Snow

• Forms when water droplets in clouds size up one million times

• Depending on the weather in the region, the water droplets may freeze into crystals and become snow

http://zahiym5tlc.edublogs.org/files/2010/01/rain-and-snow1.jpg

Sleet

Glaze

Hail