CLOUDS AND PRECIPITATION

By Xioana Morales Marquez

END

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ADIABATIC TEMPERATURE CHANGES AND EXPANSION AD COOLING

Adiabatic temperatures are temperatures that change without heat being added or taken away

They happen when ‘air is compressed or allowed to expand

For example, and airplane when you lift off the ground and go higher into the Earth’s atmosphere your ears pop

This happens because of the vast decrease in pressure which occurs by the few gas molecules.

In result, the belaying air expands and cools down.

OROGRAPHIC LIFTING This is when mountains and other elevated

lands disrupts the natural air flow When you look at a mountain and you see

the progressing difference in land features and towards the top you see whiteness

This is because as you go higher into the atmosphere adiabatic cooling happens.

FRONTAL WEDGING

Is when a blast of cold air and warm air collide and make a ‘front’

this creates wild storms and even tornadoes In theory the cold air acts as a bottom wedge

and hot air acts as a top wedge This happens because the more dense the air

is the more the air is brought down to the bottom of the atmosphere

CONVERGENCE

Is when the air on the lower part of the atmosphere flow and move together to lift itself up higher into the atmosphere

As an example, in Florida when the warm air from the ocean to land, and the structure of the state being a peninsula the warm air comes from both sides of the land causing convergence to happen

TYPES OF CLOUDS Cirrus, Cumulus, and Stratus are the

three main basic types of clouds Cirrus is a more curl than plum

shape of cloud they have a feathery effect to them

Cumulus are clouds that are more round and full they appear more on fair days

Stratus are the clouds that have a light gray kind of color to them, the kind of clouds that tell weather it would rain today or tomorrow

HIGH CLOUDS

Cirrus, Cirrostratus, and cirrocumulus kind of clouds make up high clouds

Are figured as small but fluffy massed clouds, thin, pure white and made up of ice crystals

They increase sky coverage and are more likely a warming sign that a storm like weather would be approaching.

MIDDLE CLOUDS

Appear in the middle range of the sky from 2000-6000 meters high

Altocumulus clouds are made or figured as more full, rounded clouds

They are slightly larger then the high clouds They bring small showers or rain and or snow

LOW CLOUDS

Stratocumulus, stratus, and nimbostratus make up as members of the low cloud family

They are more of a faint kind of cloud meaning the nimbostratus cloud is more of the rain cloud then either of them

CLOUDS OF VERTICAL DEVELOPMENT

Sometimes there are clouds that don’t even correspond to any of the 3 types and levels

These clouds are very much related to each other by being associated with unstable air

FOG (BY COOLING AND BY EVAPORATION As a clearance there is absolutely no

difference in a cloud and fog, they are generally the same in logical sense

When it’s late at night and all weather is calm a thin layer of air collects near the ground, which process soon turns to condensation

As the air cools and the more denser the cooled air is in lower terrains, is where fog builds by cooling

Although fog that is made by evaporation is just cool air that moves over warm water, when the water vapor meets the cold air it condenses and rises with warmed air

COLD CLOUD PRECIPITATION Involves the Bergeron process Counts on two major Processes super-

cooled and supersaturated to be super-cooled water in the liquid

state would have to be -40 degrees, meaning when it takes impact to an object it freezes

To be supersaturated ice crystals can’t have any approach to water vapor due to the way ice crystals are saturated

WARM CLOUD PRECIPITATION

Involves the collision-coalescence process

Is when rain droplets go through clouds with they water absorbing particles, the cloud being well below freezing temperatures

the slat in the rain droplets remove water vapor making the relative humidity drop lower than 100%

So as rain droplets move through the cloud they hit other smaller droplets making them together drop down.

RAIN AND SNOW

Have a lot in common as rain droplets are produced in the cloud, the temperature that in well below freezing makes the rain turn to snow before it falls

The snow on the other hand, known as the rain, melts as it’s falling but only when the surface temp is at least 4 degrees Celsius

SLEET, GLAZE AND HAIL

Sleet is a form of air that temperatures are above freezing, and lay over a subfreezing layer near towards the ground

Glaze is when rain drops become ‘super-cooled’ as they fall from the sky, hit the ground and turn to ice on instant impact

Hail is made in cumulonimbus clouds, as small pellets grow bigger they find a strong ‘up-draft’ and is carried down to the ground