EARTHSC 2GG3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Fujita Scale, Wind Shear, Jet Stream
30 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
Some water precipitates as rain or snow. Most rain not taken up by plants soaks in to become groundwater. Groundwater seeps back to surface into lakes and rivers. Dew point: the temperature at which air"s relaive humidity would be 100% (when air contains max water vapour it can hold) If water cools below the dew point, water condenses into droplets. If enough droplets form, they merge into larger droplets and precipitate as rain or snow. Adiabaic cooling: occurs when rising air expands without a change in heat content. Adiabaic lapse rate: the rate of cooling as an air mass rises. When an air mass expands, its heat is distributed over a larger volume, so the air becomes colder. Air moving over the coninent may be forced to rise over a mountain range, so it expands and cools in the orographic efect. Cooler air can hold less moisture, so precipitaion occurs as an air mass rises.
