EARTHSC 2GG3 Lecture 12: Lecture 12 - Storms.docx
1 Apr 2013
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Document Summary
Lecture 12: storms thunder, lightning, hail, tornadoes and dust. Weather refers to the day-to-day changes in atmospheric conditions: temperature, precipitation. Climate is the long-term statistical average of weather conditions; assessed using at least 30-years of data. You can get same weather in 2 different climates. Adiabatic cooling occurs when rising air cools as it expands without change in heat content. For dry air the cooling rate is 100c for every 1000m. The saturated adiabatic lapse rate is less than the dry adiabatic lapse rate due to the release of latent heat during condensation. Different if you have moisture in air and when you don"t. Heating of the earth"s surface leads to rapidly rising parcels of air (convection) with subsequent condensation and cloud formation. High pressure system prevents warm air from rising clear skies. Low pressure system warm air rises cloudy. Icelanding low pressure; siberian high pressure; bermuda high pressure; pacific high pressure. July high pressure moves south.
