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Next, blow up and tie the balloon that was weighed, and place the inflated balloon back on the scale. Record the new mass. Use a roll of tape to keep the balloon from rolling off the scale. Make sure that the scale is zeroed with the roll of tape on the scale as shown in Figure 2. The scale should be able to measure to a tenth of a gram for it to detect the mass of the air in the balloon.
A warm front is the leading edge of a mass of moving warm air. Warm fronts usually move slowly and are often marked by rain and cloudy skies. Cold fronts form when quickly moving cold air masses collide with more slowly moving warm air masses. Because cold air is denser, it sinks beneath warm air.
And since cold fronts move quickly, they are also associated with quickly-changing weather conditions, which may include thunderstorms. Cold fronts are usually associated with lower air pressure. Next, an occluded front occurs when a cold air front takes over a warm air front. This can be like an air mass sandwich, in which the warm air mass becomes stuck between two cold air masses.
The denser cold air masses lodge themselves around the warm air mass, pushing the warm air mass farther away from the Earth's surface. The cold air masses are then left to mix near the ground, cooling the temperatures we experience. Usually these fronts are associated with a drying of the air. Lastly, a stationary front refers to the meeting of two air masses that do not overtake each other.
With this front, a cold air mass and a warm air mass may be next to each other, but they move along at the same pace, leading to extended rain, snow, fog or clouds at the boundary. The impact of a major snowstorm on a rural area. Areas of high pressure are indicated on the surface weather analysis with a letter H, and low pressure with a letter L.
All of these symbols on the map help us understand how the weather is moving in a region. Storms are associated with the different weather fronts and can include strong winds, thunder and lightning, and precipitation. Sometimes the strong winds move dust and snow through the air masses.
Engineers design storm detection systems, such as weather radar and lightning strike indicators, to provide early storm warnings to keep people safe. They also develop warning systems to alert people to coming severe storms. By developing technology that allows people to predict storms and launch warning systems, engineers help in the effort to save lives from destructive storms. Engineers also help our communities design systems to manage all the extra rainwater and runoff from a storm.
Five steps precede the occurrence of a thunderstorm. The process begins when warm, wet air rises from the ground. Once the air rises high enough, it begins to cool and form clouds, which continue to rise. Once the clouds rise about 40, feet, depending on the temperature, large heavy water droplets or huge frozen ice crystals begin to form. These particles then fall back through the clouds, creating powerful downdrafts.
On Earth, we would likely experience such a storm as heavy rain, thunder and lightning. A single bolt of lightning can carry about 30 million volts — enough electrical energy to power all of New York. Tornadoes form when the warm, wet updrafts of a thunderstorm come close to a strong, central downdraft. If the wind hitting the top of the storm cloud is blowing in a different direction from the wind below it, the storm system starts to rotate.
As the warm and cold air currents interact, the storm begins to rotate faster and faster, accelerating winds to blow as fast as miles per hour. The funnel of a tornado can be as small as 50 feet or as big as one mile wide, allowing tornadoes to damage areas up to miles long. Most tornadoes exist for fewer than 15 minutes. Hurricanes are huge storms that form over very warm, tropical waters when unstable air has a unique mix of both high and low pressures. A hurricane is essentially a cluster of several thunderstorms that have formed together.
The storm is classified as a hurricane if the storm winds are detected to be 74 miles per hour or higher. Hurricanes can last from several hours to several weeks.
A tropical storm with winds of 74 miles per hour or higher. A violent disturbance in the atmosphere. A disturbance that occurs when the air is warm and unstable, floating above colder air. Sometimes heavy clouds but no rain. Alone white little boat on sea and dark storm clouds.
A couple standing at the ocean edge of a bay with a dramatic stormy sky overhead. Dramatic ocean background with copy space. The road through the meadow and the stormy skies. Dramatic sky with stormy clouds.
Dark clouds over gulf of Riga, Baltic sea. Calm lake water with clouds reflection.
A huge and beautiful discharge of lightning in a stormy sky over a small town. Panorama of impending squall with rain. Electric lightning strike on black background. Dramatic rain cloud background.
Neighborhood under a gray stormy sky at sunset. Stormy sky with a dramatic sunrays between the clouds on spring evening in Greece. Magic and bright lighting effects. Dark clouds before a thunder-storm. The ray of sunshine breaks through dark stormy clouds. Symbol of the struggle of good and evil. Background of dark clouds before a thunder-storm. Sky opening in stormy clouds above the Atlantic Ocean in Brittany, France.
Stormy Sea and Sky. Thundery Clouds and Gray Ocean. Wild Nature Dark Dramatic Background. Stormy sky and beach at low tide. Dramatic Cloudscape Area for Background. Lightning thunderstorm flash over the night sky. Concept on topic weather, cataclysms hurricane, Typhoon, tornado, storm. Storm Clouds Saskatchewan billowing clouds and gravel road.
Dramatic sky over rocks. Light shafts passing through a stormy sky over St. Dramatic sky over old lonely tree. Dark stormy sky before the storm. Dark clouds across the sky before heavy rain. Dark stormy clouds and sea. These storms consist of either a powerful single vortex or multiple suction vortices revolving around a tornado's center. Tornados occur in less than 1 percent of thunderstorms, and scientists still aren't completely sure what triggers their formation.
Last updated November 1, Can they think of ways that engineers helped keep them safe during the storms? Tornados occur in less than 1 percent of thunderstorms, and scientists still aren't completely sure what triggers their formation. We can see where weather fronts are located if we look at the weather forecast in the newspaper, on the television, or on the internet. Large raindrops or ice crystals form in this updraft, but they eventually grow too large and plummet back down, dragging air with them.
The key component, however, seem to be the powerful updrafts associated with thunderstorms. Scientists estimate that the pressures inside a tornado's vortex can be as much as 10 percent lower than surrounding air pressures. It works along the same lines as a typical updraft such as the one in our city example , only more extreme. To learn all about tornado activity, read How Tornados Work. Finally, there's the hurricane.
Also known as typhoons and cyclones , these storms are low-pressure zones that spin out of the tropics due to the Coriolis effect, building up speed and growing to enormous size. The low-pressure area sucks in spiraling torrents of surface wind, which then ascend into the sky in a column. A warm-air downdraft fills this hollow column.
This unique middle area of relative calm is called the eye of the hurricane. These massive storms boast wind speeds in excess of 74 miles km per hour and an average diameter of miles km. To learn much more about these powerful storms, read How Hurricanes Work. Weather affects our lives from day to day.