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Weather 101, part 2

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By Alan Sealls Chief Meteorologist

M30o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr Weather 101, part 2

Published: Fri, February 01, 2008 - 12:41 am
Last Updated: Mon, April 21, 2008 - 9:21 pm

Alan Sealls

Look at Earth from outer space and you might think it looks like a big blue marble. A lot of that blue you see is water. There’s more water covering the Earth than there is land. Of course where it is below freezing the water is ice at the North and South Poles. Water is important for life and for weather We drink it, fish live in it, and it’s used to carry things around on ships. We know frozen water is ice
but when water floats up in the air it is invisible and it’s called water vapor. We measure the amount of moisture in the air using the dew point.

Water can move around and change shape. It can leave the ground and float up into the sky as water vapor. If you get more and more water vapor it will condense and form clouds that might grow large. Sooner or later the clouds give us rain or snow or sleet or hail. All of that is called precipitation. Precipitation is any kind of water that falls from clouds. We can see it on TV on our radar to let us know if you will get wet. After the precipitation hits the ground it can run off into a river, lake or stream or it could disappear back into the air. That’s called evaporation and it is part of a cycle where the water goes from the land to the air to the clouds and over and over. That’s called the water cycle

Some people think that the clouds are the prettiest part of weather. Clouds can take on almost any shape and size you can imagine. They could be tall, short, fat, skinny, smooth, rough, white, gray and they even show other colors when the sun hits them in just the right way.

There are two main kinds of clouds. One kind is puffy and fluffy. That kind of cloud is called Cumulus

The other kind of cloud is stretched out and flat. This cloud is called Stratus

When you stop and watch the sky you’ll start to notice that clouds can be different types in one spot so it’s not always easy to know which kind is which.

There are some special clouds that happen too. One is Cirrus clouds. Another special cloud that can slow people down is fog. Fog is a cloud that sits on the ground.

You can even find strange clouds with holes in them.

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