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Effect on climate change essay
Effect on climate change essay
Climate change and its impact
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Meteorology Final Exam 12/13/13
In regions of low pressure, the wind circulates counterclockwise and inward, with convergence at the surface and divergence aloft. Low pressure systems are marked by clouds, precipitation and/or storms. In regions of high pressure, the wind circulates outward and clockwise, with divergence at the surface and convergence aloft. High pressure systems bring fair, calm and dry weather conditions.
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The advantages of infrared satellite image are: 24-hour availability, information about temperatures of clouds, and the surface in clear areas. The advantage of visible satellite image is that it gives detailed images of clouds, but a major disadvantage is that images are only available during daylight.
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We call the current atmospheric conditions in a given place weather—it is something we look at in the short term, and it can vary a lot from day to day. Daily or weekly weather forecasts are useful for planning what to wear or for outdoor work, etc. Climate is the long term averages of weather variables such as rainfall, temperature, and humidity (to name just a few) for a region. It is consistent throughout the seasons, and determines big picture things for the region such as what kind of crops are grown, and how cities are built. A typical weather observation for Cleveland, Ohio is " Temperature :29 F, Wind speed: NE 6mph, dew point: 17 F, Barometer: 1024.8 mb, overcast, snow showers expected" (tonight's weather). This is consistent with Cleveland's climate, Type Dfa (Moist continental mid-latitude) which has hot summers, cold winters, and precipitation all year.
The four main divisions of the atmosphere starting at the surface are:
1) Troposphere: It begins ...
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... called orographic lifting.
p. 188
It is possible for thunderstorms and tornadoes to form when the lower troposphere is conditionally stable when the air is cloudy. Conditional stability means that for clear air the atmosphere is stable; but for cloudy air, the atmosphere becomes unstable, causing the uplift necessary for storms.
p. 184,369
In northeast Ohio, lake effect snow develops in early winter/late fall when Lake Erie's surface is warm relative to an incoming Artic stream of air from the north or northwest. The water molecules quickly evaporate into the cold stream of air and giant snow clouds form parallel to the shore. The colder the air is compared to the lake's surface temperature, the stronger the effect is. Southeast areas of the lakeshore are hit with lake effect snow because they are in the direct path of the arctic winds.
p. 269-271
Many scientists often find themselves wondering if the tri-state tornado was really a single massive tornado or if it was part of a family of tornadoes that continuously evolve from one supercell to another. Only one factor stands in the way of this theory and that is a cyclical supercell usually has breaks in its destructive path. The tri-state tornado's path of damage appeared to be continuous despite two slight decreases in the destruction. One of which was near the onset of the storm, and one near the demise. No matter which is believed, one thing is for certain, and that is a storm like the tri-state tornado could very well happen again, but there is no telling when or where it may occur.
The concept of lake-effect snow is rather simple. It starts when cold arctic air from Canada moves southwest across the great lakes, which are warmer than the air. As the air moves across the lakes evaporation occurs. The moist air is cooled as it is lifted up and then turned into snow. This snow does not stop until the cold arctic winds stop drifting across the lakes. Hills and valleys on the shore of the lakes intensify the amount of snow an area receives. The shore of the lakes as well as, any hills or valleys, cause the masses of moist air to slow down and “pile up”.
The winter season can be a major hassle for some people while others just have to deal with a slight cool down in temperatures. Over the northern portions of the country, people are faced to deal with the harsh conditions that Mother Nature has in store. Some winter seasons are less brutal than others. Besides the typical storm systems that come through the area and drop different types of precipitation whether it is snow, sleet, or freezing rain, there’s another weather event that affects not everyone in the country, but primarily around the Great Lakes. Lake effect snow is a very interesting mesoscale convective phenomenon that occurs mostly during the heart of the winter season and adds greatly to the annual snowfall that areas around the lakes receive.
Climate and weather are similar, describing how the atmosphere behaves, the difference being the timescale (Conway, 2010). Weather is a short-term scale of temperature and precipitation, usually considering weeks or less (ibid). Climate, however, is a long term description of months or longer, describing different seasons and trends of temperature and precipitation. Climate of Vancouver is typically mild during the spring and summer and damp during the autumn and winter, and unlike other mountainous areas of British Columbia, it is not excessively cold or snowy (“Hello BC”, n.d.).
On May 20th, 2013 a EF 5 tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma and surrounding towns, with a path as wide as 1.3 miles wide (2.1 km) and had a wind speed, estimated at its peak, of 210 miles per hour (340 km/h). Killing 24 people, and injuring 377, this was one of the United States worst tornadoes in the past few years, along side the Joplin, Missouri tornado, in 2011. One of Mother Nature’s most dangerous and still very mysterious phenomenons averages about 1,200 reported each year, resulting in 80 deaths and injuring 1500. With very little known about them, especially whether or not they will form is one of the questions that plague meteorologist to this very day. What causes tornadoes, how does the tilt and gravity of the earth affect the winds to produce a tornado, and what will the future hold about our understanding of tornadoes?
Tornadoes form from wind shears. Wind shears form from warm air that is found at ground level; when it’s raised, the updraft meets a down draft of cooler air that is moved in the opposite direction of the warm air. When both are pushed towards the Earth, this creates wind shear. A spinning tube of air, created from wind shear; tilts upward into a vertical position, as the updraft sucks up moisture from the ground and into the sky. As the warm air cools high in the sky; this produces condensation. The condensation then produces thunderclouds, which rise to 30,000+ feet. The spinning formations of air are then trapped and lifted into the thundercloud. This begins as swirling motion and as continued (if the winds remained viable), a supercell will form. Mesocyclones as they are known are a rotating cloud. If these rotating clouds run into humid air it will spi...
May 4 began in much the same way as many other spring days in the Great Plains. Cool, dry air from the north clashed with warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, creating the sort of unstable atmosphere that is so common to "Tornado Alley." An intense low pressure system moved in and stalled over the area during the morning hours, providing all the ingredients that meteorologists and storm chasing groups expect for severe weather. With an extremely volatile mix of conditions in place, the National Weather Service began to issue watches in anticipation of developing storm activity.
Do you believe in Witches? Back in the 1600’s they started to think that people were witches. I am not sure why, but they did specific tests to see if you were a witch. There were many different theories to why people started accusing people of being witches. You tell me are there witches or are they fake?
According to Ahrens (2009), a tornado is defined as, “A rapidly spinning column of air that blows around a small area of intense low pressure coming from the base of a thunderstorm to the earth’s surface” (p. 394). Tornadoes can form in one of two ways either through a supercell thunderstorm or through a nonsupercell thunderstorm (Ahrens, 2009). A supercell thunderstorm forms when the ground grows warmer in spring and summer and the air further above the ground is cold (Ahrens, 2009). Warm air near the surface rises, as it cools the water vapor it carries condenses forming cumulus clouds and eventually form into cumulonimbus clouds (Ahrens, 2009). Winds near the surface blow in one direction while the winds further up blow in another; the difference creates a horizontally rotating mass of air (Ahrens, 2009). Rising warm air pushes the horizontally rotating air upright therefore, creating a mesocyclone which usually extends 2-6 miles in width (Nation Severe Storms Laboratory [NSSL], 1992). These rotating updrafts define a supercell thunderstorm and set the stage for possible tornadoes (Ahrens, 2009).
A tornado occurs in very powerful thunderstorms, and usually it occurs in a super cell. A super cell is a type of storm that already has rotation inside of it, called a mesocycle. A tornado begins to form when a downdraft of air pulls the mesocycle down towards the ground. A funnel begins to form, and when the funnel cloud finally touches down, it officially becomes a tornado. As warm, moist air (the fuel of a tornado) is drawn into the tornado, it matures...
How are tornadoes created? Tornadoes are the result of an extremely large storm called a supercell. A supercell is a storm that has the presence of a mesocyclone. A mesocyclone possesses a deep, persistently rotating updraft. These storms are also referred to as rotating thunderstorms. There are five classifications of thunderstorms: supercell, squall line, multi-cell, and single-cell.
The textbook definition of climate is the condition of the atmosphere in a specific region over many years. It has to do with long-term averages of temperature, winds, clouds, pressure, moisture, precipitation, etc. For example, South America has a very tropical climate while Minnesota has hot summers and cold winters experiencing the widest variety of weather.
A tornado requires some basic ingredients to come together. First, energy in the form of warm, moist air must exist to feed thunder storms. Second, there must be a top layer of hot, dry air called a cap. This air acts like a lid on a simmering pot, holding in the warm air that’s accumulating in the atmosphere below until the storm’s ready to burst. Last, there has to be rotating winds speeding in oppositedirections at two different levels in the atmosphere, a phenomenon called wind shear, can cause the storms to rotate. Tornado alley is perfectly situated to meet these requirements. (1)
2. The USA Today Tornado Information site also indicates that there are three key conditions for thunderstorms to form.
Normal weather patterns are when low atmospheric pressure is over northern Australia and Indonesia, and when high atmospheric pressure is over the Pacific Ocean. Winds move east to west over the Pacific. The east flows of the trade winds carries the warm surface waters to the west, and bring rainstorms to Indonesia and northern Australia. To the coast of Ecuador and Peru, warm surface water is pulled west, and the cold water beneath pulls up to replace it. This is called an upwelling.