This document discusses various atmospheric phenomena including how air behaves at different elevations and temperatures, how terrain like mountains can affect wind and moisture patterns, and cloud and precipitation formation processes. It explains that air expands as elevation and temperature decrease, and compressed as warmth increases. It also outlines the differences between stable and unstable air in relation to vertical movement and cloud/storm development. Various cloud types are defined based on their appearance and typical heights in the atmosphere. The document closes by distinguishing between rain, snow, sleet, glaze and hail based on the temperature conditions and precipitation formation mechanisms.

1. By William Deming

2.  When heat isn’t added or subtracted, they
result in being compressed or expanding
 Air expands as you elevate your position in the
atmosphere
 Air expands as it cools and air compresses as it
warms

3.  Elevated terrains act as barriers to air flow
 Once air has moved to the leeward side of say a
mountain, most of it’s moisture has been lost.
This affect is why most areas may be cut off by
mountains yet be completely different on both
sides. Ex: wet and moist on the windward, and
then hot and dry on the leeward

4.  It is When masses of warm air and cold air
collide
 Cooler denser air acts as a barrier which the
warmer less dense air rises over.

5.  When ever air in the lower atmosphere flows
together
 Because the flowing air cannot go down, cloud
formations may occur

6.  During summer days unequal heating of earths
surface may cause small areas of air to be
heated up more then the surface it surrounds
 This air will move upward since it is heated,
helping animals like birds or humans during
activities like hang gliding

7.  Stable air resists vertical movement
 Unstable air rises freely
 Clouds formed from the forced movement of
this stable air are typically widespread and
have little chance of precipitation. Clouds of
unstable air typically tower and can cause
thunderstorms

8.  When water vapor in the air changes into a
liquid or a gas turning into a liquid state
 Ex: rain, dew, fog, or clouds
 Occurs when a vapor is cooled or compressed
to its’ saturation limit

9.  Cirrus – Clouds in the atmosphere that are
shown and are explained as thin wispy strands
 Cumulus – More vertical in their development,
they have edges that are easily visible
 Stratus - Flat and hazy feature less clouds that
may produce a drizzle of rain

10.  Ex: Cirrus, Cirrostratus, and cirrocumulus –
6000 meters
 Not considered precipitation making clouds

11.  Altocumulus – 4000 meters
 A light snow or drizzle may happen with these
clouds

12.  Stratus, stratocumulus, and nimbostratus –
2000 meters
 May produce light precipitation

13.  Bases in low height range, but they often reach
upwards to the middle or high ranges
 Can produce very strong rain showers or
thunderstorms

14.  No physical difference between fog and a
cloud, just height
 Can form on cool nights where earths surface is
cooled very fast by radiation . Later in the night
a thin layer of air is cooled before dew point
and becomes denser, thus fog
 Cool air over warm water may evaporate and
help create saturation , when this meets cold
air, it condenses with warm air below

15.  The creation of precipitation in the cold mid to
upper layer clouds.
 Creates cold rain or ice crystals
 Super cooled water droplets or ice crystals
must be in the cloud together for the BP to
occur

16.  Water absorbing particles like salt can remove
the water vapor from the air and help create
large raindrops
 When these droplets move through a cloud,
they form together with smaller droplets.

17.  Rain – Requires a think layer of the atmosphere
that is above freezing and is caused by
condensation of water vapors turned into
droplets
 Snow – Forms in a motion of upward air near a
low pressure system where the temperature
must be below freezing

18.  Sleet – clear ice formed by a layer of air above
freezing temperatures that lays over a
subfreezing layer near the ground
 Glaze – occurs when freezing rain hits a surface
and creates a formation or sheet of ice around
or on an object
 Hail – A solid precipitation, which forms in
strong thunderstorms, mainly ones with very
strong updrafts