Deck 5: Cloud Development and Precipitation

Question 1

The elevation above the surface where a cloud first forms is called the ____.

A) level of free convection
B) condensation level
C) evaporation level
D) adiabatic zone

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which set of conditions, working together, will make the atmosphere the most stable ?

A) cooling the surface and warming the air aloft
B) cooling the surface and cooling the air aloft
C) warming the surface and cooling the air aloft
D) warming the surface and warming the air aloft

Answer 2

A

Question 3

If an air parcel is given a small push upward and it falls back to its original position, the atmosphere is said to be ____.

A) stable
B) unstable
C) isothermal
D) adiabatic

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which cloud type would most likely form in absolutely stable air?

A) cumulus congestus
B) cumulonimbus
C) stratus
D) altocumulus

Question 5

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

A) unstable; stable
B) unstable; unstable
C) stable; unstable
D) stable; stable

Question 6

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

A) environmental lapse rate
B) dry adiabatic lapse rate
C) moist adiabatic lapse rate
D) latent heat release rate

Question 7

What is an example of orographic clouds?

A) clouds forming over a warm ocean current
B) clouds forming on the windward slope of a mountain
C) clouds forming behind a jet airplane
D) clouds formed by surface heating

Question 8

The most latent heat would be released in a ____ parcel of ____ saturated air.

A) rising; warm
B) rising; cold
C) sinking; warm
D) sinking; cold

Question 9

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

A) absolutely stable
B) absolutely unstable
C) convectively unstable
D) conditionally unstable

Question 10

What set of conditions, working together, will make the atmosphere the most unstable ?

A) cooling the surface and warming the air aloft
B) cooling the surface and cooling the air aloft
C) warming the surface and cooling the air aloft
D) warming the surface and warming the air aloft

Question 11

If a rising air parcel is colder and heavier than the air surrounding it, the atmosphere is ____.

A) conditionally unstable
B) absolutely stable
C) absolutely unstable
D) neutrally stable

Question 12

Subsidence inversions are best developed with high pressure areas because the ____ air motions associated with them causes the air to ____.

A) rising; cool
B) sinking; cool
C) rising; warm
D) sinking; warm

Question 13

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

A) cumulonimbus
B) cirrostratus
C) nimbostratus
D) cumulus humilis

Question 14

Which of the following environmental lapse rates would represent the most unstable conditions in a layer of unsaturated air?

A) 3 ° C per 1000 m
B) 6 ° C per 1000 m
C) 9 ° C per 1000 m
D) 11 ° C per 1000 m

Question 15

An inversion represents an extremely stable atmosphere because ____.

A) air becomes cooler with height
B) surface air becomes warmer than air aloft
C) inversions act as a lid on vertical air motion
D) inversions allow air pollutants to escape freely from surface air

Question 16

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

A) greater; less
B) greater; greater
C) less; greater
D) less; less

Question 17

The dry adiabatic rate is the rate at which ____.

A) an air parcel rises
B) temperature changes in a rising or descending parcel of unsaturated air
C) volume changes when a parcel expands or is compressed
D) latent heat energy is released in a rising air parcel

Question 18

If an air parcel is given a small push upward and it continues to move upward on its own accord, the atmosphere is said to be ____.

A) stable
B) unstable
C) buoyant
D) dynamic

Question 19

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

A) isothermal ascent
B) adiabatic process
C) forced lifting
D) advection

Question 20

The difference between the "moist" and "dry" adiabatic rates is due to the fact that ____.

A) saturated air is always unstable
B) an unsaturated air parcel expands more rapidly than a saturated air parcel
C) moist air weighs less than dry air
D) latent heat is released by a rising parcel of saturated air

Question 21

The solid equivalent of drops of drizzle are called ____.

A) snow pellets
B) hail
C) snow grains
D) rime

Question 22

Why is snow challenging to measure?

A) Snowy areas are too inaccessible to measure.
B) Snow accumulations vary greatly from one spot to the next.
C) Accumulation rates are too fast for traditional gauges.
D) It is too difficult to block wind around gauges.

Question 23

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

A) moist; near
B) dry; near
C) moist; well below
D) dry; well below

Question 24

The most common ice crystal shape is ____.

A) graupel
B) a dendrite
C) rime
D) a splinter

Question 25

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 ° C (-40 ° F) or below
D) the cloud must be a cumuliform cloud

Question 26

A raindrop that freezes before reaching the ground is called ____.

A) snow
B) graupel
C) sleet
D) glaze

Question 27

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

Question 28

Suppose rain falls on one side of a street and not on the other side. This rain most likely fell from a ____.

A) nimbostratus cloud
B) stratus cloud
C) cumulonimbus cloud
D) altostratus cloud

Question 29

Which of the following cloud types would commonly be found downwind of a mountain?

A) lenticular clouds
B) anvil clouds
C) mammatus clouds
D) contrails

Question 30

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 composed of ice crystals and supercooled droplets
D) cumuliform clouds

Question 31

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

A) true blizzard
B) ground blizzard
C) snow squall
D) snow flurry

Question 32

Aircraft icing would be heaviest and most severe ____.

A) in the cloud at warmer than freezing temperatures
B) in the cloud at just below freezing temperatures
C) in the cloud at well below freezing temperatures
D) outside the cloud at below freezing temperatures

Question 33

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

Question 34

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

A) clouds in these region have below-freezing temperatures at all levels but experience strong uplifts
B) clouds in these regions can extend into regions where air temperatures are below freezing
C) ice crystals evaporate more slowly than water droplets in clouds of these regions
D) most rain occurs during the winter in these regions

Question 35

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

Question 36

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

Question 37

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

A) 1:1
B) 5:1
C) 10:1
D) 20:1

Question 38

What type of precipitation is associated with the "white plague," which injures livestock and causes extensive damage to crops?

A) hail
B) snow grains
C) freezing rain
D) sleet

Question 39

What can the Doppler Radar do in addition to what conventional radars do?

A) They can measure the temperature of cloud tops.
B) They can provide a vertical view of a cloud's droplets and ice particles.
C) They can measure the speed at which falling rain is moving vertically.
D) They can measure the speed at which falling rain is moving horizontally.

Question 40

The ice crystal process of precipitation formation operates in the mixed ice and water phase region of a cold cloud where there are ice crystals and ____.

A) supercooled drops
B) updrafts and downdrafts
C) cloud condensation nuclei
D) positive and negative electrical charges

Question 41

Falling raindrops are tear-shaped because that is the profile that minimizes air resistance.

Question 42

Hail can fall from both cumulonimbus and nimbostratus clouds.

Question 43

At the same subfreezing temperature, how does the saturation vapor pressure above water droplets differ from that above ice crystals?

Question 44

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?

Question 45

How is the stability of air determined?

Question 46

Instructions: Choose one answer from each pair of selections. During an OROGRAPHIC | ADIABATIC process, an air parcel warms or cools without exchanging energy with the surrounding environment.

Question 47

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

Question 48

Visibility generally improves after a rain storm.

Question 49

What is a thermal?

Question 50

How is graupel formed?

Question 51

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

Question 52

Instructions: Choose one answer from each pair of selections. For precipitation to develop via the ice crystal process, it is important to have many MORE | FEWER ice crystals than supercooled droplets in the mixed ice and water phase region of a cold cloud.

Question 53

What is the difference between rain and drizzle in terms of their size?

Question 54

The temperature of the air in a rising parcel of air will always be the same as that of the surrounding air.

Question 55

Supercooled water droplets are more plentiful than ice crystals in certain regions of cold clouds.

Question 56

Instructions: Choose one answer from each pair of selections. Would you expect the largest raindrops to form in a cloud with STRONG or WEAK updrafts?

Question 57

Instructions: Choose one answer from each pair of selections. In a stable atmosphere, a rising parcel of air will become colder than and MORE | LESS dense than the surrounding atmosphere.

Question 58

Instructions: Choose one answer from each pair of selections. Stratiform clouds, such as stratus, altostratus, nimbostratus, and cirrostratus clouds, form in a STABLE | UNSTABLE atmosphere and grow mainly in a horizontal direction.

Question 59

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.

Question 60

A rain gauge, used to collect and measure rainfall, that consists of a funnel-shaped collector attached to a long measuring tube is a STANDARD RAIN GAUGE | TIPPING BUCKET RAIN GAUGE.

Question 61

Define and compare dry adiabatic rates and moist adiabatic rates.

Question 62

Is the following a true statement: "It is too cold to snow"? Explain your answer.

Question 63

Explain why cumulus clouds are often observed to form, gradually disappear, and then reform in the same spot.

Question 64

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

Question 65

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