Review for Final Exam

Final Exam Tuesday December 17 th, 5pm-7:30pm Room CC301 (this room) 25% of final grade Combination of quick general questions (about 50%) and some more applied questions (weather cases) No computers: bring pens and pencils No calculators or cheat sheets

What the exam covers … Entire semester –Surface Data, Fronts –Satellite and Radar –Model forecast tools –Upper air, Soundings and Convection –Hurricanes (from lab) –Mesoscale weather, thunderstorms, tornadoes –Upper air dynamics –Winter weather

Surface Data, Fronts Decoding METAR; interpreting and plotting surface station models Surface winds related to isobars Identifying fronts and high/low pressure on a surface map Weather characteristics of fronts Horizontal and vertical structure of fronts Warm and cold advection

Satellite and Radar Satellite –Visible, IR, Water Vapor channels Radar –Reflectivity and rainfall –Winds from Doppler Radar

Model forecast tools Model maps: surface and upper-air Raw model output interpolated onto stations Decoding MOS (Model Output Statistics)

Upper Air Definition of pressure, and the (very) approximate height (in ft) of 850, 700, 500, 200mb levels Main variables that forecasters use in 850, 700, 500 and 200mb charts Relationship between winds and height contours Geostrophic Balance Identifying troughs and ridges, long waves and short waves

Soundings and Convection –Definition of potential temperature (in words), adiabatic change –Dry and moist adiabatic lapse rates –Interpreting Skew-T Log-P diagrams –Interpreting LCL, LFC and EL –Parcel motion –CAPE, Lifted Index, how to interpret these from Skew-T Log-P diagram –Inversions –Interpretation of CIN, environmental factors required to overcome CIN –Stability

Upper Air Dynamics –Convergence and Divergence –Upper-level conditions favorable for development of surface low, storms –Vorticity, and vorticity advection (PVA, NVA)

Other types of weather I –Sea Breeze –Upsloping and Downsloping –Ingredients for winter storms –Soundings for Rain, Sleet (Ice Pellets), Freezing Rain, Snow –Factors that govern lake effect snow

Other types of weather II Severe Storms –Single celled storms, multicell storms –Supercells –Tornadoes: characteristics Hurricanes –Interpretation from imagery (as in labs) –Characteristics, conditions for development –Interpreting NHC products