Types of Weather

Weather type 1 - Clouds

There are four basic types of clouds. High clouds, middle clouds, low clouds, and clouds with
vertical developement. There are also clouds that don't fall into any of these groups. Low clouds
are from the surface to about 6,500 feet and are usually composed of water droplets unless
temperatures are several degrees below freezing. Clouds on the ground are called fog. Middle
clouds range from about 6,500 feet to about 20,0000 feet. They are also mostly composted of
water droplets unless temperatures are cold. High clouds are above 20,000 feet and are composed
of ice crystals.

Weather type 2 - Dust Storm

Dust storms are created by winds moving across an arid region. Many times a strong dry cold
front is the mechanism that creates the dust or sand storm. As strong winds move across an arid
landscape, sand or dirt is picked up from the ground. Sometimes the lighter dust particles can be
lifted up to 20,000 feet high into the atmosphere. A classic example of this is a sand and dust
storm that develops over the Sahara desert. Easterly winds may carry the dust particles across the
Atlantic ocean to the Caribbean Islands or Florida. Severe sand and dust storms can obscure
visibility to zero and last for days.

Weather type 3 - Fog

Fog is a stratus cloud on the ground. There are several types of fog. Advection fog is produced
by a hortizontal motion of warm moist air over colder ground. An example of this would be a
warm front moving across land with a recent snow or cold weather. Radiation fog is produced as
heat from the earth surface is radiated back to space at night. A moist layer and nearly calm
winds need to be present. Wind can mix in dryer air aloft, keeping the air below the saturation
point. Steam fog forms when cold air moves over relatively warm water. This can be observed as
wisps of "steam" rising from lakes, rivers or oceans when a cold air mass moves in. Upslope fog
occurs as air is pushed up a mountainside and becomes saturated so that condensation occurs.

Weather type 4 - Freezing Rain / Ice

Freezing rain - known as "ice" occurs when a thin layer of freezing or below freezing air exists
near the earth's surface. Typically this occurs when snow falls into warmer air changing the
precipitation into rain. If a very thin layer of freezing air is present near the ground the rain will
freeze on objects such as power lines, trees, and cars. Ice accumulations begin to cause serious
problems when the ice is 1/2" or greater on objects

Weather type 5 - Hail

The exact processes that creates hail are still being studied. Traditionally, textbooks showed
hailstones being formed as a water droplet was carried aloft with an updaft into subfreezing air
and freezing. As the ice moved into a downdraft, more water coated the hailstone. The cycle
continued with the hailstone continuing to grow with each ride up and down the updraft and
downdraft.

More recent studies suggest that super cooled water droplets are carried aloft by strong updrafts
in thunderstorms. A small ice particle forms and grows as "waves" of supercooled water droplets
continue to bump into the ice particle. A new coat of ice grows with each cycle. The hailstone is
kept aloft by the strong updraft. The stronger the updraft the greater the force to keep the heavier
hailstones aloft. The hailstone eventually falls to the grown when the the weight is too great for it
to remain aloft or when it gets pushed out of the updraft. Sometimes hailstones bump into each
other while being bombarded with supercooler water droplets and stick together giving the
hailstone a spiked appearance.
Weather type 6 - Hurricane

Weather type 7 - Lightning

Lightning is simply a discharge of electricity in the atmosphere

Weather type 8 - Rain

Rain is precipitation in liquid form. Liquid precipitation can occur as mist, drizzle, or rain.
Droplet size differentiates the type that it is classified. Mist is generally 50-500 microns in size.
Drizzle is .5 to 2 millimeters in size and rain is 2 millimeters to 1 centimenter in size. Rain is
formed when condensation of water vapor occurs condenses into water droplets.
Weather type 9 - Sleet

Sleet is transparent frozen raindrops. Sleet or ice pellets are created when snow falls into air
above freezing and melts into rain drops. If another below freezing layer below the warm air is of
sufficient depth, the rain drops freeze into balls of ice or ice pellets. Any significant amount of
sleet is farily rare. This is due to the fact that there needs to be just the right conditons to get a
perfect layer of warm air in between the layers of cold air. There have been cases of storms
producing several inches of sleet. A mix of snow and sleet and sleet and rain is more common.

Weather type 10 - Snow

Snow is the accumulation of crystal snowflakes. Snowflakes are made as water ice crystalizes.
The crystals may form in many different shapes dictated by the water content and temperature in
the cloud as the snowflakes are forming. Snowflakes can take the shape of columns, dendrites,
plates, needles and other six sided shapes. It is possible for it to snow several degrees above
freezing if the air aloft is very cold and the above freezing layer is shallow near the ground.
Weather type 11 - Sun

Sunny weather or clear skies is defined as less than 1/8 sky cloud cover. Mostly sunny skies is
characterized by 1/8 - 2/8 sky cloud cover. Sunny skies many times are observed when a high
pressure area is dominating the weather pattern. High pressure signifies a region of sinking air
which tends to dry out the atmosphere resulting in less mositure to form clouds. Deserts are
locations with sunny or mostly sunny skies due to high pressure systems influencing the weather
pattern much of the year.

Weather type 12 - Thunderstorm

Thunderstorms are cumulonimbus clouds that produce thunder and lightning.

Weather type 13 - Tornado

A tornado is a violently rotating column of air usually produced by severe thunderstorms.

Weather type 14 - Wind

Wind is air in motion in the atmosphere. Windy weather is caused by an imbalance of heating in
the atmosphere. It can be caused from an im balance from solar heating or a difference over a
boundary such as a front. The uneven heating generates an unbalanced pressure field. Air from a
high pressure area flows toward a region of low pressure to balance the pressure field. A wind
vane points to the direction from where the wind is blowing from and an anemometer measures
how fast the wind is blowing.