1. How Does Mother Nature Show Her Fury?

2. What is Meteorology?
Study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting

3. ATMOSPHERIC LAYERS
TROPOSPHERE: weather occurs here; birds and planes fly here
STRATOSPHERE: contains Ozone
MESOSPHERE: Radio waves travel up to here
THERMOSPHERE:
Ionosphere: aurora borealis
Exosphere: satellites

4. What Causes the Weather?
Global movement of matter is driven by the properties of water and energy
Heat Transfer:
Radiation
Conduction
Convection
Convection is the primary mechanism of energy transfer in the atmosphere, oceans and asthenosphere

5. What Causes Climate and Seasons?
The shape of the planet and the tilt
Milankovitch Cycles: Like a top the Earth wobbles and the length of the elliptical orbit changes every 100,000 years as well as the tilt, causing different latitudes to receive more or less sunlight

6. Cloud Types

7. Convection Cells
Ferrel Cells: Exist from degrees latitude N/S (Westerlies)
Polar Cells: Cold, very dry dense air (Polar Easterlies)
Jet Streams: Extremely fast moving winds found at boundaries of convection cells

8. What is the Coriolis Effect?

9. Can you identify the weather fronts?

10. How Does Mother Nature Show Her Fury?
Thunderstorms
Floods
Hail
Wind
Lightning
Tornadoes
Hurricane/Typhoon/Cyclone
Dust Storms
Blizzards

11. WHERE DO TORNADOES IN THE US OCCUR?
WHAT IS A TORNADO?
WHAT CAUSES A TORNADO?
MOST TORNADOES ARE SPAWNED BY GIANT THUNDERSTORMS KNOWN AS “SUPERCELLS”
WHERE DO TORNADOES IN THE US OCCUR?
MOST TORNADOES IN THE US OCCUR IN CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN STATES FROM THE ROCKIES TO THE APPALACHIAN MTNS, KNOWN AS “TORNADO ALLEY”

12. TORNADO FACTS AVERAGE # OF TORNADOES PER YEAR
STATE WITH HIGHEST # OF TORNADOES
TOP 5 TORNADO STATES
STATES WITH LOWEST # OF TORNADOES
816
TEXAS (AVG. 125)
TEXAS(125), OKLAHOMA(52), KANSAS(48), FLORIDA(46), NEBRASKA(38)
ALASKA, RI, HAWAII, VERMONT, OREGON

13. How are Tornadoes Measured?

14. HURRICANE SEASON! WHEN DOES HURRICANE SEASON BEGIN?
FROM JUNE TO NOVEMBER WITH SEPTEMBER BEING THE MOST ACTIVE
WHEN DOES A TROPICAL STORM BECOME A HURRICANE?
WHEN ITS WIND SPEED EXCEEDS 75 MPH
MOST POWERFUL ATLANTIC HURRICANE ON RECORD IS HURRICANE ALLEN IN 1980, WHICH REACHED 190 MPH

16. How Does Lightning Form?
Lightning occurs when there is a charge separation in the cloud.
As a thunderstorm grows, electrical charges build up within the cloud, with positive charges at the top, and negative charges at the bottom.
Oppositely charged particles gather at the ground below the cloud.

17. WHICH STORM IS MORE DANGEROUS?
SOME FACTORS TO CONSIDER ARE:
INTENSITY OF STORM (SCALES)
LOCATION OF STORM
HOW A STORM ORIGINATES & PROGRESSES
DAMAGE IT CAUSES