We need to define and discuss a few technical terms and concepts. I expect a struggle getting my work accepted by mainstream meteorology but that doesn’t mean I hold their work in low regard. The selection of some terms has been problematic for me developing this work.
The term trough is one example. As an old farm boy (and very proud of it) a trough was a place where water and/or water was placed to feed/water the pigs. I expected that a trough was some sort of depression in the atmosphere that somehow contained a weather characteristic vertically. Finally, I found a trough was an isobar was a mapping feature that traveled south and back north in a smooth curve.
I though a wall cloud was a vertical cloud like the wall, ceiling and floor features of a room. I’m still not sure if a wall cloud is actually the flat bottom (ceiling) cloud from which a barrel cloud descends or the barrel cloud itself. So I refer to them as ceiling clouds and barrel clouds.
Please point out instances when I use what I consider descriptive language without relating my term(s) with traditional weather terms. I don’t know the history of the term name selection and I’ve only had the one Penn course on undergraduate weather.
Humidity and density – the relative weight of humid and dry air
Dew point and cloud level – the conversion of humidity to visual moisture
Humidity and wind – the effects of gravity and centripetal force on buoyant air
Next Humidity and Density
Return to Background and Terms