A boundary between two air masses, one cold and the other warm, moving so that the colder air replaces the warmer air.

The boundary between two air masses, one cool and the other warm, moving so that the warmer air replaces the cooler air.

A boundary between two air masses that more or less doesn’t move, but some stationary fronts can wobble back and forth for several hundred miles a day.

A combination of two fronts that form when a cold front catches up and overtakes a warm front.

A prefix to cloud-type names for clouds that are at high altitudes and composed of ice crystals.

A prefix to cloud-type names for clouds generally found between 3000 and 7000 meters. Alto comes from the Latin word meaning "middle".

A prefix to cloud-type names for clouds generally found low in the atmosphere.

Thin, wispy clouds that form high in the atmosphere as their water vapor freezes into ice crystals. Cirrus clouds are a principle cloud type.

It describes the average weather conditions in a certain place or during a certain season. Weather may change from day to day, but climate changes only over hundreds or thousands of years. Many animals and plants need one kind of climate to survive. Dolphins and palm trees can live only in a warm climate, while polar bears and spruce trees need a cold climate.

Fluffy, mid-level clouds that develop in towering shapes and signal fair weather. Cumulus clouds are a principle cloud type.

It’s the same as air pressure. The pressure exerted by the atmosphere at a given point.

A high-pressure system that moves in a clockwise motion. These bring you sunny skies.

A layer of gases surrounding a planet. The Earth’s atmosphere is divided into five layers: exosphere, thermosphere, mesosphere, stratosphere, and troposphere.

The Latin word for "rain" used to describe a cloud or group of clouds from which rain is falling.

It describes the condition of the air at a particular time and place. Weather also tells how the air moves (wind) and describes anything it might be carrying such as rain, snow or clouds. Thunder, lightning, rainbows, haze and other special events are all part of weather.

The heating effect of the Earth's atmosphere. The atmosphere acts like a greenhouse because sunlight freely passes through it and warms the surface, but the Earth's re-radiated heat is slowed in its escape from the planet back into space.

They are intense storms with swirling winds up to 150 miles per hour. Usually around 300 miles across, hurricanes are 1,000-5,000 times larger than tornadoes. Hurricanes are known by different names around the world. In Japan they are Typhoons, while Australians call them Willy-Willys.

The rate at which air temperature falls with increasing altitude.

Condition of the atmosphere in which the temperature decrease with increasing altitude is less than the dry adiabatic lapse rate. In this condition, the atmosphere tends to suppress large-scale vertical motion.

When air next to the ground is rising due to surface heating.  The heat is absorbed by the air close to the ground through conduction and radiation.  Vertical movement is thus created in the atmosphere causing unstable conditions.  When very unstable, heated air will rise rapidly.

relating to or denoting a process or condition in which heat does not enter or leave the system concerned.

a warm dry wind that blows down the east side of the Rocky Mountains at the end of winter.

a body of air with horizontally uniform temperature, humidity, and pressure.

Continental polar (cP) or continental arctic (cA) air masses are cold, dry, and stable.

Maritime polar (mP) air masses are cool, moist, and unstable.

Marine tropical (mT) air masses are warm, moist, and usually unstable.

Continental tropical (cT) air masses are hot, dry, unstable at low levels and generally stable aloft (upper-level ridge)

the perceptible natural movement of the air, esp. in the form of a current of air blowing from a particular direction.

Climates encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elements in a given region over long periods of time.

Non-manmade emission sources, including biological and geological sources, wildfires, and windblown dust

(Cyclonic storm) In meteorology, a cyclone is an area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth.

the layer of the earth's atmosphere that contains a high concentration of ions and free electrons and is able to reflect radio waves. It lies above the mesosphere and extends from about 50 to 600 miles (80 to 1,000 km) above the earth's surface.

the region of the earth's atmosphere above the stratosphere and below the thermosphere, between about 30 and 50 miles (50 and 80 km) in altitude.

the layer of the earth's atmosphere above the troposphere, extending to about 32 miles (50 km) above the earth's surface (the lower boundary of the mesosphere).

the lowest region of the atmosphere, extending from the earth's surface to a height of about 3.7–6.2 miles (6–10 km), which is the lower boundary of the stratosphere.

the interface between the troposphere and the stratosphere.

the degree to which the ambient air is pollution-free, assessed by measuring a number of indicators of pollution.

the state of being clear of trees

a body of water or air moving in a definite direction, esp. through a surrounding body of water or air in which there is less movement.

Regions with a polar climate are characterized by a lack of warm summers (specifically, no month having an average temperature of 10 °C or higher).

In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold.

A tropical climate is a climate of the tropics. In the Köppen climate classification it is a non-arid climate in which all twelve months have mean temperatures above . 

The subtropics are the geographical and climatical zone of the Earth immediately north and south of the tropical zone, which is bounded by the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, at latitudes 23.5°N and 23.5°S. ...

(Desert climate) Under the Koppen climate classification, a desert climate (BWh, BWk, BWn), also known as an arid climate, is a climate that does not meet the criteria to be classified as a polar climate, and in which precipitation is too low to sustain any vegetation at all, or at most a very ...