week 7 test questions

Pataasin ang iyong marka sa homework at exams ngayon gamit ang Quizwiz!

Almost ________ of Australia is desert.

40%

Of the 5 major groups in the Koppen classification system, which letter below indicates the classification that is based primarily on precipitation?

B

Climates where evaporation exceeds precipitation are called ________ climates.

Dry

________ discovered Jupiter's four largest moons.

Galileo

The true shape of the planetary orbits was discovered by ________.

Johannes Kepler

Tornadoes of F1 to F2 in strength account for ________.

Most Tornadoes Observed

The humid subtropical climate dominates the ________ United States.

Southeastern

The 5000 year old Stonehenge stone circle of Salisbury Plains, England, allows light shafts to come straight between two rocks on ________ in the Northern hemisphere.

Summer Solstice

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

a. April-June period

The first modern astronomer to propose a Sun-centered universe was ________.

a. Nicolaus Capernicus

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

a. barometric pressure to rise

Thunderstorms form from what type of cloud?

a. cumulonimbus

Kepler said that the ________ go(es) around the ________ on ________ orbits.

a. planets; Sun; elliptical

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. release of latent heat by condensation

Which of the following is typically not associated with the life cycle of a thunderstorm?

a. the development of stratus clouds

Midlatitude deserts and steppes form because ________.

a. they are in the interiors of continents

Which one of the following statements is not true of tornadoes?

a. usually occur along the warm front of a mid-latitude cyclone

When the center of circulation of a midlatitude cyclone just passes to your south, you expect ________.

a. winds shifting from the east or northeast to northwest during rainy (or snowy) weather

The length of daylight on the Moon is about ________.

about two weeks

Cold fronts and warm fronts in the middle latitudes are often associated with a ________.

answer is not b and c

An air mass that forms in the North Atlantic Ocean in winter over cold water and then comes ashore is a ________ mass.

b. Continental Polar air mass

Which of these men formulated the Law of Universal Gravitation?

b. Sir Isaac Newton

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

b. Southeast

If you live in the Midwestern United States or Canada and you experience several days of winter temperatures below -20 degrees C with clear weather, you are undoubtedly experiencing ________.

b. a Continental Polar air mass

When an active cold front overtakes a warm front, ________.

b. an occluded front forms

The precipitation associated with a warm front typically arrives ________ the actual frontal boundary.

b. considerably ahead of

When viewing the planets, Mars appears to move backwards, or retrograde, because ________.

b. it is rotating around the Sun slower than Earth's rotation

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

b. midlatitude cyclones

According to the Ptolemaic (Greek) model of the universe, how many "heavenly" bodies could be observed wandering along the background of stars?

b. seven

Continental tropical air masses are most prominent in what part of North America?

b. the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico

The most luxuriant (abundant) vegetation found in any climatic realm is the ________.

b. tropical rain forest

The major difference in vegetation between the different humid tropical (A) regions is that ________.

b. wet tropical regions have rain forests, and tropical wet and dry regions have grasslands

Compared to places at lower elevations, highland climates are usually cooler and ________.

b. wetter

The wet tropics are limited to areas ________.

below 1000 meters of elevation

The ancient ________ divided each hemisphere into torrid, temperate, and frigid zones.

c. Greeks

The concept that Earth maintained a circular orbit around the Sun was suggested during the time of ________.

c. The Renaissance

Because surface winds circulate around a midlatitude cyclone, why do they move from west to east across North America?

c. The winds aloft, particularly the jet stream, move from west to east and steer the storm system.

Why were planets called "wanderers" by early astronomers?

c. They move relative to the stars.

Midlatitude anticyclones are typically centered on ________.

c. a maritime polar air mass

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

c. an unstable air mass, probably maritime tropical air with thunderstorms driven by thermals in an unstable air mass

Which of the following is a part of the earth system that could be significantly impacted by climate and climate change?

c. deposition of sedimentary rocks

In a climatological sense, dryness is a function of both annual rainfall and ________.

c. evaporation

Where is the most severe weather typically located in a midlatitude cyclone?

c. just south of the center of circulation

Midwestern farmers used to say "mare's tail and mackerel scales bring the storm down on you head"; Mare's tails are cirrus clouds and mackerel scales are cirrostratus. When this sequence is followed by altostratus the old farmers were talking about an approaching ________ front.

c. warm

According to the Ptolemaic (Greek) system, the planets have ________ orbits.

circular

On a weather map, ________ fronts are shown by a line with triangular points on one side.

cold

Climate-feedback mechanisms ________.

complicate climate models

Lightning is most prominent in ________.

cumulonimbus clouds

The southeastern United States lies in the heart of the "horse latitudes" where normally we would expect desert conditions. Why isn't this area a desert?

d. Continental tropical air masses derived from Mexico disturb the pattern when these air masses are drawn northward by cyclonic storms.

Why has Doppler radar been very valuable in preventing loss of life by tornadoes?

d. It can detect development of thunderstorm rotation and mesocyclone formation associated with tornadoes.

The concept that Earth was a sphere was established around the time of ________.

d. The Ancient Greeks

A statement you will sometimes hear people say is that a day is not 24 hours but is really 23 hr. 56 min. and 4 sec. What does this refer to?

d. This is sidereal time, not solar time; a solar day is 24 hours.

You are in mid-latitudes in winter. You experience heavy snow followed by a dramatic drop in temperature as a cold front passes, but for almost 24 hours the weather is clear. Then, high clouds appear in the west, thicken to stratus clouds and you receive a light new snowfall (aka snow flurries) but the temperature remains cold. You have just seen the passage of ________.

d. an occluded front

Low latitude dry regions tend to ________.

d. be cloud free

The Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn were identified by the ancient Greeks as the ________.

d. boundaries between the moderate and hot areas on earth

A wind shift from south or southwest to northwest is commonly associated with the passage of a ________ front.

d. cold

One of the discoveries which led to the modern view of the solar system was that the orbits of the planets are ________.

d. elipses

In the past approximately 100 years, global temperatures have ________.

d. increased by nearly 1 degrees C

The apparent westward "drift" of the planets compared to the background stars is called ________.

d. retrograde motion

What is the modern explanation for "guest stars" that appear in the night sky and then disappear?

d. stars that go nova or supernova and appear as bright objects during the event and then go away

In the Gulf Coast region of the United States cold fronts intense spring floods are often associated with a phenomenon known locally as "training" where thunderstorms form along a line and follow the same line for hours. This is a classic example of severe weather along a ________.

d. stationary front

The low latitude dry regions coincide with ________.

d. the subtropical high pressure belts

A sidereal day is defined as ________.

d. the time for one complete revolution of the earth relative to the celestial reference

Relative to the celestial background, the Moon moves ________.

d. west to east

The apparent path of the Sun upon the celestial sphere is called the ________.

e. ecliptic

Coastal Alaska and Norway are in the ________ group of climates.

e. humid middle-latitude, mild winters

A Category 5 hurricane in the open water can obtain top wind speed comparable to ________.

f4 tornado

Koppen relied on ________ as a primary indicator of climate.

natural vegetation

Tornadoes most often move towards what direction?

northeast

"Rain long foretold, long last; short notice, soon past." The first five words of this weather proverb ________.

refer to a warm front

Which of the following should have the steepest pressure gradient?

tornado

On a weather map, ________ fronts are shown by a line with semicircles extending from one side.

warm

Usually ________ fronts produce several hours to days of moderate-to-gentle precipitation over a large region.

warm

The eye of the hurricane is

warmer than the rest of the storm

The ________ sides of mountains are often wet.

windward


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