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Category Archives: Phenomena
What causes wind gusts?
A wind gust is a sudden, brief increase in the speed of the wind followed by a lull. According to National Weather Service observing practice, gusts are reported when the peak wind speed reaches at least 18 mph and the variation in wind speed between the peaks and lulls is at least about 10 mph. The strongest wind gust recorded occurred at Australia’s Barrow Island, with a gust of 253 mph that occurred during tropical cyclone Olivia on April 10, 1996. Continue reading
How do snowflakes grow?
A snowflake can be an individual ice crystal or an aggregate of ice crystals. Ice crystals can grow by water vapor deposition on the crystal or by collisions with other cloud particles.
An ice crystal can grow if the air around it has a relative humidity near 100 percent. The ice particle grows by water vapor deposition. Growth by deposition is generally slow. If you find nicely shaped snowflakes, they likely were produced by vapor deposition. Continue reading
Why does the moon look red during a lunar eclipse?
A total lunar eclipse could be seen in cloud-free regions across most of the United States and Canada on Saturday morning, Dec. 10. In a total lunar eclipse the sun, Earth and moon line up and the Earth casts its shadow on the moon. The moon is always a full moon and it never goes completely dark during a total lunar eclipse. It appears reddish for the same reason that sunsets and sunrises often have a red tint. Continue reading
Why was it so windy last week?
The wind is air in motion. Moving anything requires a force. Violent destructive winds, as well as gentle summer breezes, result from a complex interplay of different forces. One of these forces results from a pressure gradient, or how fast pressure changes over distance. Strong winds almost always result from large pressure gradients. Recently, southern Wisconsin has been under the influence of a weather pattern that has strong pressure gradients, and thus strong winds. Continue reading
Category: Phenomena
Tags Meteorology, Phenomena, Wind
Comments Off on Why was it so windy last week?
Tags Meteorology, Phenomena, Wind
Comments Off on Why was it so windy last week?
What is the status of the ozone hole?
The winter atmosphere above Antarctica is very cold. The cold temperatures result in a temperature gradient between the South Pole and the Southern Hemisphere middle latitudes. Continue reading
