Exam 5: Cloud Development and Precipitation

Which cloud type below would most likely form in an unstable atmosphere?

Suppose the rising air parcel is warmer and less dense than the air around it. In this case, the atmosphere is ____.

How is graupel formed?

A conditionally unstable atmosphere is ____ with respect to unsaturated air and ____ with respect to saturated air.

The rate at which the temperature changes inside a rising (or descending) parcel of saturated air is called the ____.

A parcel of air expands and cools, or compresses and warms, with no interchange of heat with its outside surroundings. What is this called?

Most rain at middle latitudes is produced by the ice crystal process. This is because ____.

Define and compare dry adiabatic rates and moist adiabatic rates.

In a conditionally unstable atmosphere, the environmental lapse rate will be ____ than the moist adiabatic rate and ____ than the dry adiabatic rate.

The largest snowflakes would probably be observed in ____ air whose temperature is ____ freezing.

Instructions: Choose one answer from each pair of selections. Does accretion (riming) occur during the ICE CRYSTAL process or the COLLISION COALESCENCE process?

The combination of drifting and blowing snow, after falling snow has ended, is called a _____.

Instructions: Choose one answer from each pair of selections. Does the collision and coalescence process work best when all the drops are the SAME or DIFFERENT sizes?

Describe what a true blizzard is and how it differs from a ground blizzard.

What is an example of orographic clouds?

Instructions: Choose one answer from each pair of selections. Would you expect a region in a "rain shadow" to have ABUNDANT or INFREQUENT precipitation?

On average, the water equivalent of a fresh snowpack is ____.

Cloud seeding using silver iodide only works in _____.

As ice crystals and snowflakes fall from high cirrus clouds they are called VIRGA | FALLSTREAKS, and usually disappear as they change from ice into vapor.

What types of clouds might we find forming in a stable atmosphere? Describe the characteristics of these clouds.