Weather Glossary

While high pressure areas are often associated with dry and sunny weather...

Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) is a measure of...

Beams of sunlight particularly seen from the rising or...

This is a centuries-old subjective term referring to fine-dropped...

The name 'El Niño' is widely used to describe the warming...

This is a centuries-old subjective term referring to reduced...

This boundary typically marks the arrival of lower temperatures...

During calm, clear nights, heat radiates quickly away from the ground...

When the temperature of hard surfaces (such as roads...

This is a halo that appears around the edge of an observer’s...

These are centuries-old colloquial terms (of Germanic or...

Areas of high atmospheric pressure occur where air is more concentrated...

The likelihood that showers will develop is largely determined by how 'stable'...

These relatively rare clouds resemble evenly-spaced ocean waves...

The Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) is an eastward pulsation...

The smell produced when rain falls on dry earth...

The Quasi Biennial Oscillation - is a regular variation in the...

Air can sometimes be both below freezing but still saturated with...

This is crystallised water that has formed from water vapour around...

Every so often in winter time...

When the atmosphere is well-mixed through its depth...

A crucial element in meteorology is the degree of vorticity (or spin)...

When the air is cold and the wind is blowing, heat is removed from...

The Aurora Borealis (or Northern Lights) is a dramatic and colourful...

This is another effect caused as the sun’s rays are refracted by the...

Dew neither rises nor falls, but forms instantaneously when...

There is no single universal definition of drought...

This refers to the rapid intensification of...

Even when fog occurs when air temperatures are below freezing...

Where a cold front catches up with a warm front, a wedge of...

Often referred to simply as "a frost" an air frost occurs when...

A funnel cloud is a cone-shaped cloud, which extends from the base...

These are pellets of ice (sometimes known as soft hail)...

This is frozen rain...

Beneath the overhead midday sun, heating is at a maximum within...

Jet streams are narrow channels of high speed air (which can be...

'La Niña' or "the girl" is the term adopted for the opposite side of...

While this word is often associated with heavy rainfall...

During winter, outbreaks of intensely cold air can emerge from...

This magnificent 'special effect' is the result of sunlight being scattered...

In conditions of light wind and strong sunshine land areas can heat...

The sun goes through a cycle of approximately 11-years between...

These are subtly-coloured spectra of light that appear as a partial arc...

This refers to the zone of Plain States in the USA, where tornadoes...

Similar to tornadoes, watersports are funnel clouds which extend down to a water surface

A blizzard is defined as moderate or heavy falling snow...

This effect results from the rotation of the Earth. The consequence is that air...

The difference between the daytime maximum and the night-time...

El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) describes the hand-in-hand...

Even when temperatures are below freezing point, clouds often...

On some occasions, warm, moist air can glide over air which is much...

This typically marks the arrival of higher temperatures in...

This occurs when the temperature of the ground surface falls below...

When moisture-laden air is forced to rise and cool as it blows over...

This is a line of strong and gusty winds that can occur on the outer edge

Urban areas contain high concentrations of concrete, brick and...

This is an oscillating pattern of sea surface temperatures...

At night, particularly under calm conditions and clear skies, heat radiates...

Areas of low atmospheric pressure occur where air is less concentrated...

At a height of around 200,000 feet, in the atmospheric layer...

Centred over polar regions, this is a circulation of strong winds high up...

Ever wondered why clear skies are blue?

This is a centuries-old subjective term for a brief spell of rainfall...

On the rear side of rapidly developing mid-latitude depressions...

This is a vertical shaft of light that appears most often at sunrise...

This denotes a distinct linear zone of relatively low pressure...

This refers to the rapid intensification of an area of low pressure...