
Weather Glossary
The following is a list of definitions for commonly used weather-related terms. ABSOLUTE HUMIDITY AIR AIR MASS AIR POLLUTION ALTIMETER ALTITUDE ANEMOMETER ANTARCTIC ANTARCTIC OCEAN ARCTIC ARID AURORA AUTUMN BALL LIGHTNING BAROGRAPH BAROMETER BAROMETRIC PRESSURE BEAUFORT WIND SCALE BLACK ICE BLIZZARD CELSIUS TEMPERATURE SCALE CHINOOK CLEAR ICE CLIMATE CLOUD COLD FRONT CONDENSATION CRYSTALIZATION CURRENT CYCLONE DAWN DAY DEGREE DENSITY ALTITUDE DEW DEW POINT Think of it this way: You have enough boxes to fill a closet. If you put those same boxes in the living room, the boxes hold as much stuff as they did in the closet, but they fill a smaller percentage of space in the living room than they did in the closet. The boxes fill 100 percent of the space in the closet, but perhaps only 37 percent of the space in the living room. In the summer, we often talk of humid afternoons. You might be surprised that what would be considered an extremely sultry afternoon (temperature of 95, dew point of 72) would have a relative humidity of less than 50 percent (47 percent, in this case). It's the dew point number, not the relative humidity percentage, that reflects the humidity. DOG DAYS DOLDRUMS DROUGHT DRY BULB THERMOMETER DUSK EARTHQUAKE ECLIPSE EL NINO EQUINOX EVAPORATION EVAPOTRANSPIRATION EYE (HURRICANE) FAHRENHEIT TEMPERATURE SCALE FLASH FLOOD FLOOD FLOOD PLAIN FOG FORECAST FREEZING POINT / FREEZE FROST GALE GREENHOUSE EFFECT HAIL HEAT HEAT EXHAUSTION HEAT INDEX HEAT LIGHTNING HEAT STROKE HEAT WAVE HORSE LATITIDES HUMIDITY HURRICANE HYDROMETEOR HYGROMETER HYPOTHERMIA ICE The solid form of water. It can be found in the atmosphere in the form of ice crystals, snow, ice pellets, and hail, for example. ICE CRYSTALS ICE JAM ICE STORM ICICLE ICING INCHES OF MERCURY (inHg) INDIAN SUMMER |
JET STREAK JET STREAM KNOT LIGHTNING LUNAR ECLIPSE MERCURIAL BAROMETER METEOROLOGY MIDDLE LATITUDES MIST MOISTURE MONSOON MUD SLIDE MUGGY NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS NOR'EASTER OBSERVATION OVERCAST OZONE (O3) OZONE LAYER PRECIPITATION PREVAILING WIND PSYCHROMETER RAIN RAINBOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY SATURATE SATURATION POINT SEA BREEZE SHOWER SKY SLEET SLUSH SNOW SOLAR RADIATION SPRING SUMMER TEMPERATURE THAW THERMOMETER THUNDER THUNDERSTORM TIDE TORNADO TSUNAMI TWISTER TYPHOON ULTRAVIOLET UPDRAFT VAPOR PRESSURE WARM FRONT WARNING WATER WEATHER WEATHER VANE WET BULB DEPRESSION WET BULB THERMOMETER WIND WIND CHILL INDEX WIND DIRECTION WIND SPEED WINTER YEAR YELLOW SNOW ZULU TIME Sources: Geer, Ira (ed). Glossary of Weather and Climate. Boston. American Meteorological Society, 1996. Huschke, R.E. (ed.). The Glossary of Meteorology. Boston, Massachusetts. American Meteorological Society Press, 1980. National Weather Service Observing Handbook No. 7, Surface Weather Observations and Reports. U.S. Department of Commerce, 1996. Schneider, Stephen H. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather. New York. Oxford University Press, 1996. The Weather Channel Glossary |




