Objectives
Identify the processes that form thunderstorms.
Compare and contrast different types of thunderstorms.
Describe the life cycle of a thunderstorm.
Vocabulary
air-mass thunderstorm
sea-breeze thunderstorm
frontal thunderstorm
Thunderstorms
Thunderstorms
At any given moment, nearly 2000 thunderstorms
are occurring around the world.
Some are capable of producing hail the size of
baseballs, swirling tornadoes, and surface winds
of more than 160 km/h.
All thunderstorms, regardless of intensity, have
certain characteristics in common.
Thunderstorms
Thunderstorms
Thunderstorms
Thunderstorms
Air-Mass Thunderstorms
Thunderstorms are often classified according to
the mechanism that caused the air to rise.
Thunderstorms
Air-Mass Thunderstorms
Thunderstorms
Frontal Thunderstorms
Frontal thunderstorms are thunderstorms that
are produced by advancing cold fronts and, more
rarely, warm fronts.
Thunderstorms
Stages of Development
A thunderstorm usually has three stages: the
cumulus stage, the mature stage, and the
dissipation stage.
Thunderstorms
Stages of Development
Thunderstorms
Stages of Development
Cumulus Stage
In the cumulus stage, air starts
to rise nearly vertically upward.
Transported moisture
condenses into a visible
cloud and releases
latent heat.
As the cloud droplets
coalesce, they form larger
droplets, which eventually
fall to Earth as precipitation.
Thunderstorms
Stages of Development
Mature Stage
As precipitation falls, it cools
the air around it which
becomes more dense than the
surrounding air, so it sinks
creating downdrafts.
The updrafts and downdrafts
form a convection cell.
In the mature stage, nearly
equal amounts of updrafts and
downdrafts exist side by side in
the cumulonimbus cloud.
Thunderstorms
Stages of Development
Dissipation Stage
The supply of warm, moist air
runs out because the cool
downdrafts cool the area
from which the storm
draws energy.
Without the warm air, the
updrafts cease and
precipitation can no
longer form.
The dissipation stage is
characterized primarily by
lingering downdrafts.
Thunderstorms
Section Assessment
1. Why does there need to be an abundant source
of moisture in the lower levels of the
atmosphere for thunderstorms to form?
Thunderstorms
Section Assessment
2. What is the main cause of thunderstorm
dissipation?
Thunderstorms
Section Assessment
3. Identify whether the following statements are
true or false.
______
true Latent heat is crucial in maintaining the upward
motion of a cloud.
______
false Thunderstorms are more likely to develop along
a warm front instead of a cold front.
______
true A mountain thunderstorm is an example of an
air-mass thunderstorm.
______
true In the mature stage of a thunderstorm, updrafts
are roughly equal to downdrafts.
Severe Weather
Objectives
Explain why some thunderstorms are more severe
than others.
Vocabulary
supercell
downburst
tornado
Fujita tornado intensity scale
Severe Weather
Severe Weather
Occasionally, weather events come together in
such a way that there is a continuous supply of
surface moisture.
Severe Weather
Severe Thunderstorms
Other factors also play a role in causing some
storms to be more severe than others.
Cold fronts are usually accompanied by upperlevel, low-pressure systems that are marked by
pools of cold air, which cause the air to become
more unstable.
When the strength of the storms updrafts and
downdrafts intensifies, the storm is considered to
be severe.
Severe Weather
Severe Thunderstorms
Supercells are self-sustaining, extremely
powerful severe thunderstorms, which are
characterized by intense, rotating updrafts.
Severe Weather
Lightning
Lightning is an electrical discharge caused by the
friction of falling and rising ice crystals within
strong drafts of a cumulonimbus cloud.
Some atoms lose electrons and become positively
charged ions, while other atoms receive the extra
electrons and become negatively charged ions.
This creates regions of air with opposite charges.
To relieve the electrical imbalance, an invisible channel
of negatively charged air, called a stepped leader,
moves from the cloud toward
the ground.
Severe Weather
Lightning
When the stepped leader
nears the ground, a
channel of positively
charged ions, called the
return stroke, rushes
upward to meet it.
The return stroke surges
from the ground to the
cloud, illuminating the
channel with about 100
million V of electricity.
Severe Weather
Lightning
Severe Weather
Lightning
The Power of Lightning
A lightning bolt heats the surrounding air to about
30 000C.
Thunder is the sound produced as this superheated air rapidly expands and contracts.
Each year in the United States, lightning accounts for about 7500 forest fires, which result in the loss of millions of acres of forest.
Lightning strikes in the United States cause a yearly average of 300 injuries and 93 deaths to humans.
Severe Weather
Lightning
Severe Weather
Severe Weather
Hail
Hail is precipitation in the form of balls or lumps of
ice that can do tremendous damage.
Hail forms because of two characteristics common
to thunderstorms.
Water droplets exist in the liquid state in the parts of a
cumulonimbus cloud where the temperature is actually
below freezing.
The abundance of strong updrafts and downdrafts
existing side by side within a cloud.
Severe Weather
Hail
The supercooled water droplets in the cloud freeze
on contact with other ice pellets and are caught
alternately in the updrafts and downdrafts.
The ice pellets are constantly encountering more supercooled water
droplets and growing.
Eventually they become
too heavy for the
updrafts to keep aloft
and fall to Earth as hail.
Severe Weather
Floods
When there are weak wind currents in the upper
atmosphere, weather systems and resulting
storms move slowly.
Flooding can occur when a storm dumps its rain over a limited location.
If there is abundant moisture throughout the atmosphere, the processes of condensation,
coalescence, and precipitation are much more efficient and thus produce more rainfall.
Floods are the main cause of thunderstorm-related deaths in the United States each year.
Severe Weather
Tornadoes
A tornado is a violent, whirling column of air in
contact with the ground.
Before a tornado reaches the ground, it is called
a funnel cloud.
Tornadoes are often associated with supercells.
The air in a tornado is made visible by dust and debris drawn into the swirling column, or by the
condensation of water vapor into a visible cloud.
Severe Weather
Tornadoes
A tornado forms when wind speed and direction
change suddenly with height, a phenomenon
known as wind shear.
Under the right conditions, this can produce a horizontal rotation near Earths surface.
A thunderstorms updrafts can tilt the twisting column
of wind from a horizontal to a vertical position.
Air pressure in the center drops as the rotation accelerates.
The extreme pressure gradient between the center and the outer portion of the
tornado produces the violent winds associated with tornadoes.
Severe Weather
Tornadoes
Severe Weather
Tornadoes
Tornado Classification
The Fujita tornado intensity scale classifies tornadoes
according to their path of destruction, wind speed, and duration.
The scale ranges from F0, which is characterized by winds of up to 118 km/h, to the violent F5, which can pack winds of more than 500
km/h.
Most tornadoes do not exceed the F1 category.
Only about one percent ever reach the violent categories of F4 and F5.
Severe Weather
Tornadoes
Tornado Distribution
While tornadoes can occur at any time or place, some places are more conducive to their formation.
Most tornadoes form in the spring during the late afternoon and evening, when the temperature contrasts between polar air and tropical air are the
greatest.
Tornadoes occur most frequently in a region called Tornado Alley, which extends from northern Texas through Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri.
Severe Weather
Tornadoes
Tornado Safety
In the United States, an average of 80 deaths and
1500 injuries result from tornadoes each year.
The National Weather Service issues tornado watches and warnings before a tornado actually strikes.
The agency stresses that despite advanced tracking systems, advance warnings may not be possible.
Signs of an approaching or developing tornado include the presence of dark, greenish skies, a towering wall of clouds, large hailstones, and a loud, roaring noise similar to that of a freight train.
Severe Weather
Tornadoes
Severe Weather
Section Assessment
1. Match the following terms with their definitions.
___
B supercell
___
C macroburst
___
D microburst
___
A tornado
Severe Weather
Section Assessment
2. Does cloud-to-ground describe lightning?
Why or why not?
Severe Weather
Section Assessment
3. Why do so many tornadoes form in
Tornado Alley?
Tropical Storms
Objectives
Identify where tropical cyclones originate.
Describe the life cycle of a tropical cyclone.
Vocabulary
tropical cyclone
eye
eyewall
Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale
storm surge
Tropical Storms
Tropical Storms
Tropical cyclones are large, rotating, lowpressure storms that form over water during
summer and fall in the tropics.
Tropical Storms
Tropical Cyclones
Tropical cyclones thrive on the tremendous
amount of energy in warm, tropical oceans.
Tropical Storms
Tropical Cyclones
As the moving air approaches the center of the
growing storm, it rises, rotating faster and faster as
more energy is released through condensation.
Tropical Storms
Tropical Cyclones
Formation of Tropical Cyclones
Tropical cyclones require two basic conditions to form:
An abundant supply of very warm ocean water
Some sort of disturbance to lift warm air and
keep it rising
These conditions exist in all tropical oceans except the South Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean west of the South
American Coast.
They occur most frequently in the late summer and
early fall, when Earths oceans contain their greatest amount of stored heat energy.
Tropical Storms
Tropical Cyclones
Tropical Storms
Tropical Cyclones
Movement of Tropical Cyclones
Tropical cyclones move according to the wind currents that steer them.
In the deep tropics, tropical cyclones are often caught
up in subtropical high-pressure systems that are
usually present.
They move steadily toward the west, then eventually turn poleward when they reach the far edges of the
high-pressure systems.
There, they are guided by prevailing westerlies and begin to interact with midlatitude systems.
Tropical Storms
Tropical Cyclones
Stages of Tropical Cyclones
Tropical cyclones usually begin as disturbances that originate either from the ITCZ or as weak, low-pressure systems called tropical waves.
Only a small percentage these ever develop into hurricanes because conditions throughout the atmosphere must allow rising air to be
dispersed into
the upper atmosphere.
Tropical Storms
Tropical Cyclones
Stages of Tropical Cyclones
Tropical Storms
Tropical Cyclones
Stages of Tropical Cyclones
When a disturbance over a tropical ocean acquires a cyclonic circulation
around a center of low pressure, it is known as a tropical depression.
When wind speeds around the low-pressure center of
a tropical depression exceed 65 km/h, the system is called a tropical storm.
If air pressure continues to fall and winds around the center reach at least 120 km/h, the storm is officially classified as a
hurricane.
Tropical Storms
Tropical Cyclones
Stages of Tropical Cyclones
Once a hurricane, the development of a calm center of the
storm, called an eye, takes place.
The eyewall is a band immediately surrounding the eye that
contains the strongest winds in a hurricane.
Tropical Storms
Classifying Hurricanes
The Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale classifies
hurricanes according to wind speed, air pressure
in the center, and potential for property damage.
The Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale ranges from
Category 1 hurricanes to Category 5 storms,
which can have winds in excess of 155 mph.
Most of the deadliest hurricanes that strike the
United States were classified as major hurricanes.
Tropical Storms
Classifying Hurricanes
Running Out of Energy
A hurricane will last until it can no longer produce enough energy to sustain itself. This
usually
happens when:
The storm moves over land and no longer has access to the warm ocean surface from which
it draws its energy.
The storm moves over colder water.
Tropical Storms
Hurricane Hazards
Hurricanes can cause a lot of damage, particularly
along coastal areas.
Tropical Storms
Hurricane Hazards
Storm Surges
A storm surge occurs when hurricane-force winds drive a mound of ocean water,
sometimes as high as 6 m above normal sea level, toward coastal areas where it washes
over the land.
In the northern hemisphere, a storm surge occurs primarily on the right side of a storm relative to its eye, where the strongest
onshore winds occur.
Floods are an additional hurricane hazard, particularly if the storm moves over mountainous areas, where orographic lifting
enhances the upward motion of air.
Tropical Storms
Hurricane Hazards
Storm Surges
Tropical Storms
Hurricane Hazards
Hurricane Advisories
The National Hurricane Center, which is responsible
for tracking and forecasting the intensity and motion
of tropical cyclones in the western hemisphere, issues
a hurricane warning at least 24 hours before a
hurricane strikes.
The center also issues regular advisories that indicate
a storms position, strength, and movement.
Tropical Storms
Hurricane Hazards
Hurricane Advisories
Tropical Storms
Section Assessment
1. Match the following terms with their definitions.
___
A tropical depression A. a tropical cyclone with wind
speeds of at least 65 km/h
___
C hurricane
B. the band that has the
___
B eyewall
highest wind speeds in a
___
D storm surge
hurricane
Tropical Storms
Section Assessment
2. What are the two main events that cause
hurricanes to weaken?
Tropical Storms
Section Assessment
3. What are the three main threats that a
hurricane poses?
Recurring Weather
Objectives
Describe recurring weather patterns and the problems
they create.
Vocabulary
drought
heat wave
cold wave
wind-chill factor
Recurring Weather
Recurring Weather
As the air under a large high-pressure system sinks, it warms by compression and causes above-normal temperatures.
The high-pressure system also blocks cooler air masses from moving into the area, so there is little relief from the heat.
Recurring Weather
Recurring Weather
Recurring Weather
Cold Waves
A cold wave is an extended period of belownormal temperatures.
Cold waves are brought on by large, highpressure systems of continental polar or
arctic origin.
Winter high-pressure systems are much more
influenced by the jet stream than are summer
systems and therefore rarely linger over one area.
Several polar high-pressure systems can follow
the same path and subject the same areas to
bout after bout of numbing cold.
Recurring Weather
Cold Waves
The wind-chill factor is measured by the windchill index, which estimates the heat loss from
human skin caused by the combination of cold
air and wind.
Recurring Weather
Section Assessment
1. What is the primary cause of a drought?
Droughts are usually the result of shifts in
global wind patterns that allow high-pressure
systems to persist for weeks or months over
continental areas.
Recurring Weather
Section Assessment
2. What would the heat index be if the air
temperature is 90F with a 60 percent
relative humidity?
Recurring Weather
Section Assessment
3. Which type of air masses are usually
responsible for cold waves?
Study Guide
Section 13.1
Section 13.2
Section 13.3
Section 13.4
Chapter Assessment
Image Bank
Chapter Assessment
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following states experiences the
highest number of thunderstorm days annually?
a. Oklahoma
c. Florida
b. Tennessee
d. Iowa
Chapter Assessment
Multiple Choice
2. The ____ causes the illumination that
you see as lightning.
a. stepped leader
c. channel
b. return stroke
d. thunder
Chapter Assessment
Multiple Choice
3. Which classification on the Fujita tornado
intensity scale represents a strong tornado?
a. F0
c. F3
b. F1
d. F5
Chapter Assessment
Multiple Choice
4. Which of the following areas is least likely to be
hit by a hurricane or typhoon?
a. western Africa
b. eastern United States
c. southern Japan
d. eastern India
As a general rule, the most likely areas to be hit by a
hurricane are on the eastern side of continents.
Australia is the exception; both its east and west
coasts are vulnerable.
Chapter Assessment
Multiple Choice
5. Cold waves are caused by ____.
a. high-pressure systems
b. low-pressure systems
c. mT air masses
d. cT air masses
Cold waves are brought on by large high-pressure
systems that originate in the polar regions.
Chapter Assessment
Short Answer
6. Explain why cold-front thunderstorms can last
through the night?
Chapter Assessment
Short Answer
7. What is wind shear and why is it important in the
formation of tornadoes?
Chapter Assessment
True or False
8. Identify whether the following statements are true
or false.
______
true Tornadoes can occur virtually anywhere
on Earth.
______
false Typical thunderstorms last about two hours.
______
true High instability in the atmosphere limits
thunderstorms.
______
true Air-mass thunderstorms generally occur during
mid-afternoon.
______
false Tropical disturbances have a cyclonic
circulation.
Image Bank
Chapter 13 Images
Image Bank
Chapter 13 Images
Image Bank
Chapter 13 Images