Exam 19: Weather Patterns and Severe Storms

In the folk song "Wasn't That a Mighty Storm," the singer describes an event during the Galveston hurricane of 1900: "The trains they were loaded, with people leaving town, but the tracks gave way with the water, the trains they went on down." What hurricane phenomena was the author of this song describing?

Most hurricanes occur on the ___________side of oceans.

Tornadoes have embedded secondary vortices called suction vortices. Hurricanes also have embedded secondary vortices, they are called___________ .

The updrafts in thunderstorms are initiated by thermal instabilities at the surface. What process tends to increase the vertical instability that feeds the thunderstorm development?

A large body of air that is characterized by a homogeneity of temperature and moisture at any given level is an. ___________.

The electrical discharge of lightning rapidly heats the air, which in turn causes it to expand explosively to produce___________ .

This air mass may produce an occasional "nor'easter" in the winter.

Warm fronts generally have ___________than cold fronts.

If you were 200 kilometers ahead of the surface position of a warm front, you would find the frontal surface at a height of about ___________km overhead.

Thunderstorms form from what type of cloud?

After the center of a mature wave cyclone passes, you should expect___________ .

The months of___________ in the Northern Hemisphere. are the period of greatest tornado frequency.

When a TV weather forecaster gives a forecast for "widely scattered afternoon thunderstorms," these storms are probably associated with___________ .

In which area of the United States are thunderstorms most common?

In the Northern Hemisphere, tornadoes are most frequent during the___________ .

TV meteorologists often point at things labeled L on a map and describe them as low pressure centers. What are they?