Lecture 5 Weather forecasting

Tropical-scale events occur through latitudes between the equator and 30 o degrees north and south ; such as Hurricans. Tropical events can last day to weeks at a time

Mid-latitude events occur between 30 o to 60 o degrees in both NH and SH and related to transitions between synoptic features, such as warm and cold front passage. Mid-latitude and tropical features are not directly related to each other, they can come into contact as they develop.

Intermediate-scale events are embedded in mid-latitude- and tropical- scale events and include such features as squall line preceding cold fronts and bands of showers. Intermediate events, lasting less than a day.

Squall Cold-front

Small-scale events last just a few hours or less, such as thunderstorms, hailstorms, or local snow-storms. These events are brought on by strong vertical motion, convection that quickly cools and warms small pockets of air, causing rapid condensation and precipitation.

thunder

Micro-scale events last less than an hour and have extremely high vertical, or convective speeds. Examples are tronadoes and waterspouts.

Waterspouts