Key Terms: Weather Hazards Flashcards
All 12 cards in this deck
What is weather?
The day-to-day conditions of the atmosphere, such as temperature, rainfall, wind and cloud.
What is climate?
The average weather conditions of a place measured over a long period, usually 30 years or more.
What is a pressure belt?
A zone of high or low air pressure that circles the Earth at a particular latitude, e.g. low pressure at the equator.
What is a Hadley cell?
The largest cell of atmospheric circulation, in which air rises at the equator and sinks at about 30°N and 30°S.
What is a prevailing wind?
The most frequent wind direction that a place experiences.
What is a tropical storm?
An intense low pressure weather system, with very strong winds and torrential rain, that forms over warm tropical oceans.
What is the eye of a tropical storm?
The calm centre of the storm, with very low pressure, light winds, clear skies and no rain.
What is the eyewall of a tropical storm?
The band of spiralling rising air around the eye, where the strongest winds and heaviest rain occur.
What is a storm surge?
A rise in sea level caused by low pressure and strong winds pushing water towards the coast during a storm.
What is extreme weather?
Weather that is significantly different from the average or usual conditions for a place, e.g. a heatwave or unusually heavy rainfall.
True or false? In the general atmospheric circulation model there is low pressure at the equator and high pressure at about 30°N and 30°S.
True. Air rises at the equator (low pressure) and sinks at around 30° (high pressure).
True or false? The strongest winds in a tropical storm are found in the eye.
False. The eye is calm with clear skies and sinking air; the strongest winds are in the eyewall around it.