Tornadoes are incredibly powerful wind storms that form out of very strong thunderstorms. Scientists still don’t understand why some thunderstorms produce tornadoes and other thunderstorms do not produce these devastating natural disasters. Tornadoes form when several events take place in the storm. The first event is the formation of a rotating column of air. When […]
When two air masses meet, the air within them does not easily mix. That is to say that the air in one air mass will not easily mix with the air from another air mass. Instead, the air stays within its own air mass. Because of this phenomena, a border forms between two clashing air […]
It is convenient to think of the lower atmosphere, or troposphere, as one uniform and consistent mass of air. In reality this is not the case. Large pockets of air commonly form that are distinct from the surrounding atmosphere. We call these moving pockets of air air masses. All air masses have three things in […]
What causes the air to blow from place to place? Is there a giant ogre hiding in a cave somewhere blowing out birthday candles, or is something else at work? As you probably guessed, it is the latter. Air movement is caused by differences in pressure from one location to another in the Earth’s […]
The amount of precipitation that a particular location receives is determined by a number of factors. These include the average temperature for an area, the maximum vapor limit, the humidity, the location of prominent land formations such as mountains, the proximity to oceans, the amount of wind, etc. The amount of precipitation that an area […]
Precipitation takes place when water condensation becomes sufficient that water droplets are heavy enough to fall back to the surface of the Earth. Precipitation is a very common phenomena in the atmosphere of our Earth. This precipitation always comes from clouds. Yet most clouds do not form precipitation. This is because the water droplets and […]
First proposed by the Swedish meteorologist Tor Bergeron in the early 1920s, the Bergeron Process takes place when ice crystals form high in the cloud tops. These small, often microscopic ice crystals attract more water vapor, causing them to increase in size. As the ice crystals increase in size, the vapor pressure drops. This […]
There is absolutely no difference between fog and clouds found high in the air. Fog is simply a cloud that has formed near the surface of the Earth. There are four main types of fog: Radiation fog, advection fog, upslope fog and evaporation fog. Radiation Fog As the ground becomes cooled by the night sky, […]
As water droplets form in the atmosphere around dust or other particulates, they often become visible to the naked eye forming massive clouds. At any given moment, about one half of the surface of the Earth is surrounded by a cover of clouds. These clouds are physical evidence for the condensation processes that are taking […]
Condensation is the opposite of evaporation. It takes place when water vapor in the air condenses from a gas, back into a liquid form, and leaves the atmosphere, returning to the surface of the Earth. Usually in order for condensation to take place, the atmosphere must be fully saturated. In other words, the maximum vapor […]
