Deck 7: Precipitation

Question 1

An important factor in the production of rain by the collision-coalescence process is the number of ice crystals in the cloud.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

A fluffy covering of snow protects sensitive plants and their root systems from damaging low temperatures.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

A problem with the tipping bucket rain gauge is that during each "tip" it loses some rainfall and, therefore, undermeasures rainfall amounts, especially during heavy downpours.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

A city received 60 inches of snow. This is equivalent to 60 inches of precipitation.

Question 5

Generally, the smaller the pure water droplet, the lower the temperature at which it will freeze.

Question 6

Evaporating streaks of precipitation from a cloud are called virga.

Question 7

A single rain gauge on top of a building cannot represent the total precipitation for any particular region.

Question 8

When the temperature in a cloud is -30 degrees Celsius, smaller cloud droplets are more likely to freeze than larger cloud droplets.

Question 9

Since 2015, the Global Precipitation Mission satellite has replaced the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite.

Question 10

The Doppler radar has the capacity to measure the speed at which falling rain is moving horizontally toward or away from the radar antenna. Falling rain moves with the wind. Consequently, Doppler radar allows scientists to peer into a tornado-generating thunderstorm and observe its wind.

Question 11

In a cloud composed of water droplets and ice crystals, the saturation vapor pressure is less over the droplets than over the ice.

Question 12

A warm stratus cloud is typically less than 500 m thick and has slow upward air movement (generally less than 0.1 m/sec).

Question 13

With a Doppler radar smaller targets require detection by longer wavelengths.

Question 14

Generally, the concentration of nuclei is greater over the oceans than over land.

Question 15

Bacteria in decaying plant leaf material can act as ice nuclei.

Question 16

Very small cloud droplets of pure water can evaporate even when the relative humidity is 100 percent.

Question 17

In a cloud over land, where the air temperature is -10 degrees Celsius, we would find many more cloud droplets than ice crystals.

Question 18

Large, heavy snowflakes are associated with moist air and temperatures well below freezing.

Question 19

During cloud seeding, dry ice is much easier to handle than silver iodide, because it can be supplied to the cloud from burners located either on the ground or on the wing of a small aircraft.

Question 20

A typical cloud droplet has a larger surface-area-to-weight ratio than a typical raindrop.

Question 21

Cloud seeding using silver iodide only works in ____.

A)cold clouds composed entirely of ice crystals
B)warm clouds composed entirely of water droplets
C)cold clouds with a low ratio of ice crystals to water droplets
D)clouds with more ice crystals than supercooled droplets
E)clouds that can produce precipitation.

Question 22

If rain falls approximately evenly across an entire city, the rain most likely fell from a ____ cloud.

A)nimbostratus
B)stratus
C)cumulonimbus
D)altostratus
E)altocumulus

Question 23

Which statement below best describes the curvature effect?

A)Large cloud droplets fall faster than small droplets.
B)Small droplets evaporate more quickly than large droplets.
C)Small droplets collide and coalesce more easily than larger droplets.
D)It explains the six-sided shape of ice crystals.
E)It explains the shape of raindrops.

Question 24

Which cloud would most likely produce drizzle?

A)Stratus
B)Cumulus
C)Cumulus congestus
D)Cirrostratus
E)Cumulonimbus

Question 25

Which cloud type below will only produce precipitation by the collision-coalescence process?

A)A thick, cold nimbostratus cloud
B)A thick, warm cumulus cloud
C)A thick, cold cumulus cloud
D)A thick, supercooled cumulonimbus cloud with abundant nuclei
E)A supercooled cumulus congestus cloud

Question 26

The most common ice crystal shape is ____.

A)graupel
B)dendrite
C)rime
D)virga
E)a pentagon

Question 27

Small raindrops fall ____ large raindrops, and have ____ terminal velocity than/as large raindrops.

A)faster than; a lesser
B)faster than; a greater
C)slower than; a lesser
D)slower than; a greater
E)at the same rate as; the same

Question 28

Contact freezing is ____.

A)the freezing of supercooled droplets by contact with a nucleus
B)the sticking together of ice crystals to make a snowflake
C)the joining of many nuclei to form an ice nucleus
D)the freezing of supercooled droplets when they come into contact with a supercooled surface
E)the sticking together of any type of nucleus

Question 29

Rain which falls from a cloud but evaporates before reaching the ground is referred to as ____.

A)sleet
B)virga
C)graupel
D)dry rain
E)drizzle

Question 30

If you observe large raindrops hitting the ground, you could probably say that the cloud overhead was ____ and had ____ updrafts.

A)thick; weak
B)thick; strong
C)thin; weak
D)thin; strong
E)thin; no

Question 31

Which below best describes the solute effect?

A)Keeps water droplets from freezing at temperatures below 32 degrees Fahrenheit
B)Removal of pollutants from the atmosphere by cloud droplets
C)Water droplets dissolve hygroscopic nuclei and condensation can occur at relative humidity less than 100 percent.
D)Evaporation of cloud droplets and growing of ice crystals in a cold cloud
E)Condensation occurs at relative humidity of 100 percent

Question 32

Condensation onto hygroscopic nuclei is possible at relative humidity less than 100 percent due to the ____.

A)curvature effect
B)electrical charge on these nuclei
C)solute effect
D)crystalline structure of these nuclei
E)size of the nuclei

Question 33

Cloud seeding, a method to reliably increase precipitation, ____.

A)is commonly based on silver chloride
B)is commonly based on lead iodide
C)was discovered in the 1990s
D)is illegal in most US states
E)is controversial

Question 34

The growth of a precipitation particle by the collision of an ice crystal (or snowflake)with a supercooled liquid droplet is called ____.

A)accretion
B)spontaneous nucleation
C)condensation
D)deposition
E)collision

Question 35

During the ice crystal process of rain formation, ____.

A)only ice crystals are present in a cloud
B)ice crystals grow larger at the expense of the surrounding liquid cloud droplets
C)the temperature in the cloud must be -40 degrees Celsius (-40 degrees Fahrenheit)or below
D)the cloud must be a cumuliform cloud
E)the surface temperature must be below freezing

Question 36

Fallstreaks usually ____ before reaching the ground.

A)evaporate
B)condense
C)sublimate
D)deposit
E)perspirate

Question 37

Fallstreaks most often form with ____.

A)nimbostratus clouds
B)cumulonimbus clouds
C)stratus clouds
D)altostratus clouds
E)cirrus clouds

Question 38

A supercooled cloud droplet is ____.

A)an ice crystal surrounded by air warmer than 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit)
B)a liquid droplet that is cooler than the air around it
C)a liquid droplet observed at temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit)
D)a water droplet that has had all its latent heat removed
E)another term for ice crystal

Question 39

For sub-freezing temperatures, the saturation vapor pressure just above a liquid water surface is ____ the saturation vapor pressure above an ice surface.

A)greater than
B)the same as
C)less than
D)10% less than
E)50%less than

Question 40

The region of a cloud where only ice particles exist is called ____.

A)iced
B)coated
C)graupled
D)nucleated
E)glaciated

Question 41

Satellites measure rainfall from space using which instrument?

A)Radar
B)Tipping-bucket rain gauge
C)Ceiliometer
D)Weighing-type rain gauge
E)Standard rain gauge

Question 42

The heaviest form of rain is a ____.

A)shower
B)cloudburst
C)virga
D)drizzle
E)fallstreak

Question 43

In the winter you read in the newspaper that a large section of the Midwest is without power due to downed power lines. Which form of precipitation would most likely produce this situation?

A)Snow
B)Hail
C)Freezing rain
D)Sleet
E)Cool rain

Question 44

Which is the correct association?

A)Snow grains - hail
B)Ground blizzard - graupel
C)Snow squall - intense snow shower
D)Sleet - glaze
E)Freezing rain - hail

Question 45

The idea in cloud seeding is to first find clouds that have too low a ratio of ice crystals to droplets and then to add enough artificial ice nuclei so that the ratio of crystals to droplets is about ____.

A)1:100
B)1:1,000
C)1:10,000
D)1:100,000
E)1:1,000,000

Question 46

The main difference between a cloud drop and a raindrop is its ____.

A)color
B)size
C)shape
D)nucleus type
E)associated precipitation type

Question 47

A typical raindrop is about ____ than a typical cloud droplet.

A)one thousand times smaller
B)one thousand times larger
C)one hundred times smaller
D)one hundred times larger
E)ten times larger

Question 48

After a snowstorm, the newspaper reports that Buffalo, New York, received 1.50 inches of precipitation. If we assume an average water equivalent ratio for this snowstorm, then Buffalo received about ____ inches of snow.

A)3
B)1.5
C)10
D)9
E)15

Question 49

Which is an incorrect association?

A)Snow grains - ice pellet
B)Ground blizzard - graupel
C)Sleet - glaze
D)Freezing rain - hail
E)All of these are incorrect associations.

Question 50

The primary method used in preventing the growth of large, destructive hailstones is to inject a thunderstorm with large quantities of ____.

A)silver iodide
B)ice crystals
C)dry ice
D)hydrophobic nuclei
E)hailstone embryos

Question 51

In a typical advancing winter storm, which of the following sequences of precipitation types is most likely to occur?

A)Freezing rain, rain, snow, sleet
B)Freezing rain, rain, sleet, snow
C)Rain, freezing rain, snow, sleet
D)Rain, sleet, freezing rain, snow
E)Rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow

Question 52

Radar gathers information about precipitation in clouds by measuring the ____.

A)energy emitted by the precipitation particles
B)absorption characteristics of falling precipitation
C)amount of energy reflected back to a transmitter
D)amount of sunlight scattered off the precipitation
E)amount of solar energy passing through the cloud

Question 53

Precipitation with the greatest size (diameter)is ____.

A)the snow pellet
B)the snow grain
C)a hailstone
D)sleet
E)a raindrop

Question 54

Cloud droplets are detected by radar using wavelengths of ____.

A)1 meter
B)1 decimeter
C)1 centimeter
D)1 millimeter
E)1 micrometer

Question 55

On average, the water equivalent of 10 inches of snow is about ____ inch(es)of water.

A)0.5
B)1
C)2
D)2.5
E)5

Question 56

If a city were to receive 1/2 inch of rain in the morning and then 5 inches of snow that afternoon, about how much precipitation would the weather service report for that day?

A)5 1/2 inches
B)1/2 inch
C)1 inch
D)10 inches
E)2 1/2 inches

Question 57

Some of the first experiments in cloud seeding were conducted by Vincent Schaefer and Irving Langmuir during the late 1940s. To seed a cloud, they dropped crushed pellets of ____ from a plane.

A)silver iodide
B)silver iodine
C)lead iodide
D)cupric sulfide
E)dry ice

Question 58

Which of the following might be mistaken for hail?

A)Virga
B)Graupel
C)Dendrite
D)Supercooled droplet
E)Ice crystal

Question 59

The Doppler radar uses the principle called Doppler ____ to measure the speed at which falling rain is moving horizontally toward or away from the radar antenna.

A)signal
B)radiance
C)acceleration
D)speedometer
E)shift

Question 60

A trace is an amount of precipitation measured to be less than ____.

A)250 mm
B)25 mm
C)2.5 mm
D)0.25 mm
E)0.025 mm

Question 61

Snow accumulation rates may be measured at a single site by using a(n)____________________, a small wooden platform resting near the ground that is cleared off after each measurement.

Question 62

Typical cloud droplets seldom reach the ground as rain because they ____________________ before reaching the ground.

Question 63

An instrument that can collect and measure rainfall is called a(n)____________________.

Question 64

Which of the following has made it easier to determine whether falling precipitation is in the form of rain or snow?

A)Gamma-ray irradiation
B)X-ray scanning
C)Lidar
D)Dual-polarization radar
E)Sonar

Question 65

The speed of falling cloud droplet increases until the air resistance ____.

A)is greater than gravity
B)is greater than the droplets inertia
C)is less than gravity
D)equals the pull of gravity
E)is less than the droplets momentum

Question 66

Radio detection and imaging is the spelled-out version of the acronym ____________________.

Question 67

A standard rain gauge consists of a funnel-shaped collector attached to a long measuring tube. The cross-sectional area of the collector is ____ times that of the tube. Hence, rain falling into the collector is amplified ____ in the tube, permitting measurements of great precision.

A)2; twofold
B)4; fourfold
C)6; sixfold
D)8; eightfold
E)10; tenfold

Question 68

When a Doppler radar has collected data, the returning signal is amplified and displayed on a screen, producing an image, also called a(n)____________________, from the target.

Question 69

The radar unit consists of a transmitter that sends out short, powerful ____ pulses.

A)microwave
B)ultraviolet light
C)transmitted light
D)reflected light
E)X-ray

Question 70

Remote recording of precipitation can be made with a(n)____________________rain gauge. With this gauge, precipitation is caught in a cylinder and accumulates in a bucket. The bucket sits on a sensitive weighing platform. Special gears translate the accumulated weight of rain or snow into millimeters or inches of precipitation.

Question 71

Radar images typically are displayed using various colors to denote the intensity of precipitation, with ____ representing the lightest precipitation and ____ representing the heaviest precipitation.

A)white; black
B)light grey; dark grey
C)orange; green
D)dark blue or purple; yellow or bright green
E)light blue or green; orange or red

Question 72

In dry powdery snow, the water equivalent ratio may be as high as ____.

A)15:1
B)20:1
C)25:1
D)30:1
E)35:1

Question 73

Raindrops that reach Earth's surface are seldom larger than ____.

A)2 mm
B)3 mm
C)5 mm
D)8 mm
E)10 mm

Question 74

Dry ice has a temperature of ____.

A)-28 degrees Celsius (-18 degrees Fahrenheit)
B)-48 degrees Celsius (-54 degrees Fahrenheit)
C)-58 degrees Celsius (-72 degrees Fahrenheit)
D)-78 degrees Celsius (-108 degrees Fahrenheit)
E)-98 degrees Celsius (-144 degrees Fahrenheit)

Question 75

A common term used for saturation vapor pressure when referring to cloud droplets is ____________________ vapor pressure.

Question 76

Heavy showers usually fall from ____________________clouds, whereas steady precipitation normally falls from ____________________clouds.

Question 77

Suppose a thick nimbostratus cloud contains ice crystals and cloud droplets all about the same size. The precipitation process most important in producing rain from this cloud is called the ____________________ process.

Question 78

In a standard rain gauge ____ inches of water in the tube would be measured as 1 inch of rainfall.

A)2.5
B)5
C)7.5
D)10
E)12.5

Question 79

Very wet snow falling in air near freezing may have a water equivalent of ____.

A)1:1
B)3:1
C)6:1
D)10:1
E)20:1

Question 80

Atmospheric conditions that produce sleet differ from those that produce hail because for sleet to form, surface temperatures must be ____________________ freezing, whereas surface temperatures are typically well ____________________ freezing during hailstorms.