Meteorology Practice Exam 3: Chapters 11-14

Name: ______________________ Class: _________________ Date: _________ ID: A
Meteorology Practice Exam 3: Chapters 11-14
Multiple Choice
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
____ 1. Squall lines most often form ahead of a:
a. cold front.
b. warm front.
c. cold-type occluded front.
d. warm-type occluded front.
e. stationary front.
____ 2. The origin of cP and cA air masses that enter the United States is:
a. Northern Siberia.
b. Northern Atlantic Ocean.
c. Antarctica.
d. Northern Canada and Alaska.
____ 3. Which of the following statements is most plausible?
a. In winter, cP source regions have higher temperatures than mT source regions.
b. In summer, mP source regions have higher temperatures than cT source regions.
c. In winter, cA source regions have lower temperatures than cP source regions.
d. In summer, mT source regions have lower temperatures than mP source regions.
e. They are all equally plausible.
____ 4. Compared to an mP air mass, mT air is ____.
a. warmer and drier
b. warmer and moister
c. colder and drier
d. colder and moister
____ 5. One would expect a cP air mass to be:
a. cold and dry.
b. cold and moist.
c. warm and dry.
d. warm and moist.
____ 6. What type of air mass would be responsible for refreshing cool, dry breezes after a long summer hot spell
in the Central Plains?
a. mP
b. mT
c. cP
d. cT
____ 7. Generally, the greatest lake effect snow fall will be on the ____ shore of the Great Lakes.
a. northern
b. southern
c. eastern
d. western
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Name: ______________________ ID: A
____ 8. What type of air mass would be responsible for persistent cold, damp weather with drizzle along the east
coast of North America?
a. mP
b. mT
c. cP
d. cT
e. cA
____ 9. The air mass with the highest actual water vapor content is ____.
a. mT
b. cT
c. mP
d. cP
____ 10. What type of air mass would be responsible for hot, dry summer weather in southern Arizona?
a. mP
b. mT
c. cP
d. cT
____ 11. Along the boundary between continental polar and maritime tropical air masses, ____ is often found.
a. a large area of calm (extremely light wind)
b. intense heat and drought
c. widespread precipitation and storminess
d. both a and c
____ 12. A stationary front does not move because:
a. winds on both sides of the front are calm.
b. the winds blow parallel to the front.
c. the front is between high and low pressure.
d. the winds blow against each other and are of equal strength.
____ 13. On a weather map, this front, drawn in blue, represents a region where colder air is replacing warmer air:
a. warm front.
b. cold front.
c. cold-type occluded front.
d. warm-type occluded front.
____ 14. The rising of warm air up and over cold air is called:
a. overrunning.
b. frontolysis.
c. frontogenesis.
d. occlusion.
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Name: ______________________ ID: A
____ 15. What type of weather front would be responsible for the following weather forecast? "Increasing high
cloudiness and cold this morning. Clouds increasing and lowering this afternoon with a chance of snow or
rain tonight. Precipitation ending tomorrow morning. Turning much warmer. Winds light easterly today
becoming southeasterly tonight and southwesterly tomorrow."
a. cold front
b. warm front
c. stationary front
d. warm-type occluded front
____ 16. The upper air flow on the map below would bring ____ air masses into western Canada and the United
States, and ____ air masses into the eastern United States.
a. mP; mT
b. cA; mP
c. mP; cP
d. cA; mT
e. cT; mT
____ 17. The below diagram represents a side view of:
a. a cold front.
b. a warm front.
c. an occluded front.
d. a stationary front.
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Name: ______________________ ID: A
Exhibit 11-2
Use the surface weather map to answer the question(s).
____ 18. Refer to Exhibit 11-2. Heavy snow would most likely be falling at position:
a. 1.
b. 2.
c. 3.
d. 4.
____ 19. Refer to Exhibit 11-2. Clearing skies are most likely at position:
a. 1.
b. 2.
c. 3.
d. 4.
____ 20. Refer to Exhibit 11-2. Which position is located in the warm sector?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. 4
____ 21. According to the model of the life cycle of a wave cyclone, the storm system is normally most intense:
a. as a frontal wave.
b. as a stable wave.
c. as an open wave.
d. as a stationary wave.
e. when the system first becomes occluded.
____ 22. In the polar front theory of a developing wave cyclone, energy for the storm is usually derived from all
but which of the following?
a. rising of warm air and the sinking of cold air
b. latent heat of condensation
c. an increase in surface winds
d. heat energy stored in the ground
____ 23. Which region is not considered to be a region where cyclogenesis often occurs?
a. eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains
b. Atlantic Ocean near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
c. California
d. the Great Basin of the United States
e. Gulf of Mexico
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Name: ______________________ ID: A
____ 24. If the flow of air into a surface low pressure area is greater than the divergence of air aloft, the surface
pressure in the center of the low will:
a. increase.
b. decrease.
c. remain the same.
d. deepen.
____ 25. Cyclogenesis is the ____ of a mid-latitude cyclone.
a. development or strengthening
b. weakening or dissipation
c. term for the exact midpoint
d. none of these
____ 26. When an upper-level low lies directly above a surface low,
a. the surface low will probably weaken.
b. thunderstorms will develop.
c. a wave cyclone will begin to form.
d. the pressure of the surface low will decrease.
e. cyclogenesis will occur.
____ 27. For a surface storm system to intensify, the upper-level low (or trough) should be located to the ____ of
the surface low.
a. north
b. south
c. east
d. west
____ 28. Developing low pressure areas generally have ____ air near the surface and ____ air aloft.
a. converging; diverging
b. diverging; converging
c. converging; converging
d. diverging; diverging
____ 29. When upper-level divergence of air above a surface low pressure area is stronger than the convergence of
surface air, the surface pressure will ____ and the storm itself will ____.
a. increase; intensify
b. increase; dissipate
c. decrease; intensify
d. decrease; dissipate
____ 30. Atmospheric shortwaves usually move ____ than longwaves, and ____ when they move through a
longwave ridge.
a. faster; weaken
b. faster; strengthen
c. slower; weaken
d. slower; strengthen
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Name: ______________________ ID: A
____ 31. A small, moving disturbance imbedded in a longwave is called:
a. a lee-side low.
b. a wave cyclone.
c. a shortwave.
d. a frontal wave.
____ 32. During baroclinic instability,
a. wave cyclones can intensify into large storm systems.
b. strong wind speed shear exists from the surface up to at least the 500 mb level.
c. rising and descending air motions exist.
d. temperature advection is occurring.
e. all of these
____ 33. Referring to the diagram below, if the winds are all blowing at constant speed, confluence of air is
occurring at point:
a. 1.
b. 2.
c. 3.
d. 4.
____ 34. Front A in the figure below is a Southern Hemisphere ____ front and is moving toward the ____.
a. warm; north
b. warm; south
c. cold; north
d. cold; south
e. none of these
____ 35. A weather watch would probably be issued for which of the following conditions?
a. There is a chance for tornadoes tomorrow.
b. Presently, extremely high winds are occurring at mountain summits.
c. A tornado has been sighted at the outskirts of town.
d. Heavy snow has been falling over the forecast area.
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Name: ______________________ ID: A
____ 36. Suppose it is warm and raining, and a cold front is moving toward your location. Directly behind the cold
front, it is cold and snowing. Still further behind the front, the weather is cold and clearing. If the front is
scheduled to pass your area in 6 hours, a persistence forecast for your area for 12 hours from now would
be:
a. cold and snowing.
b. cold and clearing.
c. cold and cloudy.
d. warm and raining.
e. not enough information on which to base a forecast.
____ 37. Predicting the weather by weather types employs which forecasting method?
a. probability
b. steady-state
c. analogue
d. persistence
e. guess
____ 38. The forecasting technique that produces several versions of a forecast model, each beginning with
slightly different weather information to reflect errors in the measurements, is called:
a. climatology forecasting.
b. redundancy analysis.
c. persistence forecasting.
d. ensemble forecasting.
e. probability forecasting.
____ 39. The forecasting of weather by a computer is known as:
a. weather type forecasting.
b. climatology forecasting.
c. extended weather forecasting.
d. analogue prediction.
e. numerical weather prediction.
____ 40. Ordinary thunderstorms only last about one hour and begin to dissipate when:
a. lightning neutralizes all the electrical charge in the cloud.
b. when all the precipitation particles in the cloud turn to ice.
c. when the downdraft spreads throughout the cloud and cuts off the updraft.
d. when solar heating at the ground begins to decrease.
____ 41. Severe thunderstorms are different from ordinary thunderstorms in that severe thunderstorms:
a. contain thunder and lightning.
b. have an anvil.
c. contain hail.
d. have a strong updraft and downdraft.
e. have a tilted updraft in the mature stage.
____ 42. The main difference between a downburst and a microburst is:
a. duration.
b. strength.
c. size.
d. altitude.
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Name: ______________________ ID: A
____ 43. The wind shear associated with several major airline crashes is believed to have been caused by:
a. microbursts.
b. dry lines.
c. the jet stream.
d. mesocyclones.
____ 44. A relatively narrow downburst, less than 4 kilometers wide, is called a:
a. microburst.
b. funnel cloud.
c. rain shaft.
d. narrow burst.
e. mesocyclone.
____ 45. Squall lines generally do not form:
a. behind a cold front.
b. when the air aloft develops waves downwind from a cold front.
c. along a dry line.
d. in the warm sector where warm, dry air meets warm, humid air.
e. ahead of an advancing cold front.
____ 46. On a surface weather map, which of the following marks the boundary where a warm, dry air mass
encounters a warm, moist air mass?
a. gust front
b. dry line
c. storm front
d. wall cloud
____ 47. Most squall line thunderstorms form:
a. in advance of a cold front.
b. along a cold front.
c. behind a cold front.
d. in advance of a warm front.
e. along an occluded front.
____ 48. Lightning may occur:
a. within a cloud.
b. from a cloud to the ground.
c. from one cloud to another cloud.
d. all of these
____ 49. Lightning discharges within a cloud occur ____ cloud-to-ground lightning.
a. more frequently than
b. less frequently than
c. about as frequently as
d. Lightning cannot remain in the cloud; it must strike an object on the ground.
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Name: ______________________ ID: A
____ 50. Distant lightning that is so far away you cannot hear the thunder is called:
a. sheet lightning.
b. heat lightning.
c. false lightning.
d. St. Elmo's fire.
e. auroral lightning.
____ 51. Electrons:
a. are negatively charged.
b. are positively charged.
c. carry no charge.
d. can carry either positive or negative charge.
____ 52. A cloud-to-ground lightning discharge will sometimes appear to flicker. This is because:
a. you are able to see the separate steps of the stepped leader.
b. you are able to distinguish separate return strokes.
c. the bright light causes you to blink.
d. of refraction caused by turbulent thunderstorm winds.
____ 53. You a generally safe inside an automobile during a lighting storm because:
a. the car's radio antenna will act as a lightning rod:
b. the rubber tires insulate you from the ground.
c. metal cars do not become electrically charged.
d. the metal car body will carry the lightning current around the passengers inside.
____ 54. Thunder will not occur:
a. without lightning.
b. in wintertime thunderstorms.
c. in thunderstorms over the ocean.
d. when a thunderstorm is producing precipitation.
____ 55. When caught in a thunderstorm in an open field, the best thing to do is to:
a. run for cover under the nearest tree.
b. lie down flat on the ground.
c. crouch down as low as possible while minimizing contact with the ground.
d. remove all metallic objects from your pockets.
____ 56. A funnel cloud is composed primarily of:
a. cloud droplets.
b. dust and dirt from the ground.
c. raindrops.
d. hail.
e. ice crystals.
____ 57. Which of the following statements about tornadoes is correct?
a. All tornadoes rotate in a counterclockwise direction.
b. Tornadoes never strike the same place twice.
c. All tornadoes make a distinction roar.
d. The United States has more tornadoes that any other country in the world.
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Name: ______________________ ID: A
____ 58. The small, rapidly rotating whirls that sometimes occur within a large tornado are called:
a. microtornadoes.
b. whirl winds.
c. suction vortices.
d. mesocyclones.
____ 59. A funnel cloud or tornado may develop from this rotating cloud that extends beneath a severe
thunderstorm.
a. mammatus cloud
b. anvil cloud
c. roll cloud
d. wall cloud
e. suction vortex
____ 60. Most tornadoes move from:
a. northwest to southwest.
b. southwest to northeast.
c. south to north.
d. southeast to northwest.
____ 61. A typical diameter of a tornado would be:
a. 50 meters.
b. 250 meters.
c. 1,000 meters.
d. 2,500 meters.
e. 4,000 meters.
____ 62. In the United States, tornadoes are most frequent during the ____, and least frequent during the ____.
a. summer; fall
b. spring; winter
c. spring; fall
d. summer; winter
e. winter; fall
____ 63. Tornadoes are usually observed:
a. behind cold fronts.
b. on the windward side of mountains.
c. near large bodies of water.
d. along occluded fronts.
e. ahead of cold fronts.
____ 64. At home, when confronted with an approaching tornado, you should:
a. open the windows right away.
b. grab a video camera and start filming.
c. listen to see whether the tornado has an audible roar.
d. seek shelter immediately.
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Name: ______________________ ID: A
____ 65. The Enhanced Fujita Scale for classifying tornado strength is based on:
a. multiple damage indicators.
b. degree of damage.
c. atmospheric stability.
d. multiple damage indicators and the degree of damage.
e. none of these
____ 66. Damage to structures inflicted by tornadoes can be caused by:
a. flying debris.
b. the tornadoes high winds.
c. the drop in air pressure as a tornado moves overhead.
d. the drop in air pressure above a roof as high winds blow over it.
e. all of these
____ 67. The signal detected by a Doppler radar is:
a. a radiowave emitted by lightning.
b. a soundwave produced by thunder.
c. a radiowave reflected by precipitation.
d. a soundwave produced by wind shear.
____ 68. A single Doppler radar is NOT able to:
a. measure the speed of falling precipitation.
b. measure the speed at which precipitation is moving horizontally.
c. measure the speed at which precipitation is moving parallel to the radar antenna.
d. detect areas of precipitation.
e. detect a mesocyclone.
____ 69. Most waterspouts:
a. form in severe thunderstorms.
b. draw water up into their core.
c. have rotating winds of less than 45 knots.
d. form in an area where winds are descending from a cloud.
e. actually form over land.
____ 70. Referring to the figure below, lightning flashes that stay within a cloud are ____ frequent than discharges
that strike the ground.
a. more
b. less
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Name: ______________________ ID: A
____ 71. Supercell thunderstorms are much larger than ordinary thunderstorms and have ____.
a. many individual cells
b. at least two individual cells
c. one large cell
____ 72. According to the National Weather Service definition, a severe thunderstorm is a storm having:
a. hail at least three-quarters of an inch in diameter.
b. surface wind gusts of 50 knots (58 miles/hr) or greater.
c. a tornado.
d. all of these
e. at least one of the conditions described in (a), (b), and (c)
____ 73. The appearance of a downdraft marks the ____ of the mature stage of a thunderstorm.
a. end
b. beginning
c. peak
____ 74. In a multicell storm, each of the cells is always in the same stage of development.
a. true
b. false
____ 75. The largest and most severe type of squall line forms:
a. behind a cold front.
b. ahead of a cold front.
c. above a cold front.
Essay
76. Describe the data and tools that a meteorologist assembles prior to making a weather forecast.
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Meteorology Practice Exam 3: Chapters 11-14
Answer Section
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. ANS: A PTS: 1
2. ANS: D PTS: 1
3. ANS: C PTS: 1
4. ANS: B PTS: 1
5. ANS: A PTS: 1
6. ANS: C PTS: 1
7. ANS: C PTS: 1
8. ANS: A PTS: 1
9. ANS: A PTS: 1
10. ANS: D PTS: 1
11. ANS: C PTS: 1
12. ANS: B PTS: 1
13. ANS: B PTS: 1
14. ANS: A PTS: 1
15. ANS: B PTS: 1
16. ANS: D PTS: 1
17. ANS: A PTS: 1
18. ANS: B PTS: 1
19. ANS: D PTS: 1
20. ANS: C PTS: 1
21. ANS: E PTS: 1
22. ANS: D PTS: 1
23. ANS: C PTS: 1
24. ANS: A PTS: 1
25. ANS: A PTS: 1
26. ANS: A PTS: 1
27. ANS: D PTS: 1
28. ANS: A PTS: 1
29. ANS: C PTS: 1
30. ANS: A PTS: 1
31. ANS: C PTS: 1
32. ANS: E PTS: 1
33. ANS: A PTS: 1
34. ANS: C PTS: 1
35. ANS: A PTS: 1
36. ANS: D PTS: 1
37. ANS: C PTS: 1
38. ANS: D PTS: 1
39. ANS: E PTS: 1
40. ANS: C PTS: 1
1
ID: A

ESSAY
41. ANS: E PTS: 1
42. ANS: C PTS: 1
43. ANS: A PTS: 1
44. ANS: A PTS: 1
45. ANS: A PTS: 1
46. ANS: B PTS: 1
47. ANS: A PTS: 1
48. ANS: D PTS: 1
49. ANS: A PTS: 1
50. ANS: B PTS: 1
51. ANS: A PTS: 1
52. ANS: B PTS: 1
53. ANS: D PTS: 1
54. ANS: A PTS: 1
55. ANS: C PTS: 1
56. ANS: A PTS: 1
57. ANS: D PTS: 1
58. ANS: C PTS: 1
59. ANS: D PTS: 1
60. ANS: B PTS: 1
61. ANS: B PTS: 1
62. ANS: B PTS: 1
63. ANS: E PTS: 1
64. ANS: D PTS: 1
65. ANS: D PTS: 1
66. ANS: E PTS: 1
67. ANS: C PTS: 1
68. ANS: C PTS: 1
69. ANS: C PTS: 1
70. ANS: A PTS: 1
71. ANS: C PTS: 1
72. ANS: E PTS: 1
73. ANS: B PTS: 1
74. ANS: B PTS: 1
75. ANS: B PTS: 1
76. ANS:
Answer not provided.
PTS: 1
2
ID: A