15-20 Module Quiz Questions

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

humid middle-latitude, mild winters

The ________ climate is located on the eastern sides of continents, in the 25- to 40-degree latitude range.

humid subtropical

What causes seasons?

seasonal changes in the angle of the sun above the horizon

Earth's low-latitude deserts and steppes coincide with the ________ pressure belts.

subtropical high

The atmosphere acquires most of its energy from ________.

the earth's surface

Condensation nuclei, tiny particles of matter in the air, are important because ________.

they provide a surface for water molecules to form on

A light-colored surface has a higher albedo compared to a darker-colored surface.

true

At a depth equal to one-half the wavelength (measured from still water), the movement of wave particles becomes negligible.

true

Atmospheric pressure is simply the weight of the atmosphere above a location.

true

Coastal upwelling helps to decrease the surface water temperature off the central California coast.

true

Jet Streams travel between 120-240 km/hr in a west-to-east direction.

true

Thunderstorms are associated with high pressure systems.

false

Tides are caused by wind.

false

Weather and climate are the same thing.

false

Neap tides occur during full and new moons.

False

Standard sea level pressure in millibars is ________.

1013 mb

Why is it warmer in most of Europe than in northern California even though both are on the east side of an ocean and Europe is at higher latitude than California?

California is affected by a cold offshore current, whereas Europe has the warm north Atlantic current, the continuation of the Gulf Stream

Coastal California is famous for fog and smog (fog mixed with smoke). Why is the California coast foggy/smoggy, whereas Houston, Texas, which is at similar latitude, might get occasional smog from too many cars, but fog is relatively rare?

The ocean is warm off the Texas coast, but a cold current running offshore California generates fog when the cold, moist air is drawn ashore by a sea breeze.

The Dry Adiabatic rate of change for unsaturated air is 10°C/1000 m. What does this mean?

Unsaturated air will get warmer as it sinks and colder as it rises.

When warm air occupies an area formerly covered by cooler air, this is called a cold front.

false

Hurricane Sandy produced some of the greatest destruction along the New Jersey coast in communities situated along narrow strips of land between the beach and a coastal lagoon to the west. These communities were vulnerable because they were built on low-lying terrane of ________.

a barrier island

A spring tide occurs ________

about 26 times per year, at every full and new moon

When a hurricane moves onto land, it rapidly loses its punch; that is, the storm declines in intensity. Which of the factors listed below contribute to this loss of punch?

all answer choices are correct

The wet tropics are limited to areas ________.

below 1000 meters of elevation

A halo around the Sun or Moon indicates that this cloud type is present.

cirrostratus

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

cold

Lightning is most prominent in ________.

cumulonimbus clouds

Climates where evaporation exceeds precipitation are called ________ climates.

dry

The winter solstice has equal amounts of daylight and night.

false

A Savanna would be classified within the B climate zone.

false

A tropical depression has faster wind speeds than a tropical storm.

false

Average sea level air pressure is 1 millibar.

false

El Nino is a colder than normal sea surface temperature; La Nina is a warmer than normal sea surface temperature.

false

In the surf zone, wave velocity increases and wave height decreases.

false

The E climate zone is considered "winterless".

false

The coldest temperature anywhere within Earth's atmosphere occurs within the stratosphere.

false

The summer solstice for the northern hemisphere is March 21.

false

If you live on the east coast of Florida or the Gulf Coast, why might you hope for an El Niño year?

it will decrease the probability of tropical cyclones

Locations in India, Southeast Asia, and portions of Australia experience alternating periods of rainfall and dryness (monsoon circulation). These locations would be classified within the Aw climate zone.

true

The California Current is a cold water current.

true

Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay are ________.

all of the above

Hurricanes generally are ________.

all of the answers are correct

Which of the following is designed to prevent or retard shoreline erosion?

all of these

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 ________.

an occluded front

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

april-june period

A sandbar that completely crosses a bay, sealing it off from the open ocean is a ________.

none of these

Earth receives energy from the Sun in this way.

radiation

Polar regions receive nearly continuous sunlight in the summer months so why doesn't the mean temperature during those months get above 10°C?

the sun is too low in the sky to be an effective heat source

Hurricanes are larger than tornadoes in size.

true

In the Northern hemisphere, south-facing mountain slopes are warmer and dryer than north-facing slopes.

true

Indiana weather is primarily influenced by mT and cP air masses.

true

The Tropic of Cancer is 23 1/2 degrees north; the Tropic of Capricorn is 23 1/2 degrees south.

true

The climate zone whose average temperature is below 50 degrees F all year long is the E zone.

true

The dry-summer subtropics climate is also known as the Mediterranean climate.

true

The lower the air pressure, the stronger the hurricane.

true

Tides are daily changes in the elevation of the ocean surface.

true

Warm fronts generally move slower than cold fronts

true

Warm fronts generally produce light to moderate precipitation over a large area for an extended period of time.

true

Water vapor and CO2 are largely responsible for the Greenhouse Effect.

true

Wave energy causes beach sand to move both parallel and perpendicular to the shoreline.

true

Waves have a circular orbital motion.

true

Weather fronts represent the boundary between two or more separate air masses.

true

Weather is short-term atmospheric conditions; climate is long-term atmospheric conditions.

true

A cT air mass is ________.

warm and dry

A flat, bench-like surface cut in rock along a coast is a ________

wave-cut platform

In Hurricane Katrina, the storm came ashore heading almost due north and the eye passed between the towns of Slidell, Louisiana and Waveland, Mississippi. Slidell, LA suffered heavy flooding and moderate wind damage while Waveland, MS was totally destroyed without a single building standing within 200m of the coastline. Both cities experienced the eyewall of the storm where the winds are strongest, so why was the destruction so different?

waveland caught the right front quadrant of the storm, with maximum storm surge and wind

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

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

The climate in which temperatures average 25˚C or more each month and total precipitation for the year is high is the ________ climate.

wet tropics