What is the difference between stable air and unstable air?
Stable air means that the weather is likely to be calm. It may rain or snow slowly and steadily, it may be sunny, but the weather will not change quickly. Unstable air means that the weather might change quickly with very little warning. Unstable air leads to sudden thunderstorms.
Are Cumuliform clouds stable?
Cumulus clouds developing into thunderstorms in a conditionally unstable atmosphere over the Great Plains. Notice that, in the distance, the cumulonimbus with the anvil top has reached the stable part of the atmosphere.
What clouds are stable and unstable?
The words to distinguish between clouds produced by instability and other clouds are stratiform for clouds forming in a stable layer and convective clouds for clouds developing in an unstable environment. Convective clouds have vertical development and often extend through a significant depth of the troposphere.
What type of clouds are associated with a stable air?
Any clouds that form as a result will be thin and horizontal such as cirrostratus, altostratus, nimbostratus, and stratus clouds. All of these cloud types are associated with stable air.
Does unstable air Help clouds?
In general, an unstable or conditionally unstable atmosphere is more conducive to the development of clouds and precipitation. Sometimes a parcel can be forced to rise in a stable environment, but the atmosphere strongly resists upward motion and any clouds that form are usually fairly thin and flat.
Is high air pressure stable or unstable?
A high pressure system has higher pressure at its center, this causes the air to flow away from the center. When the air flows downward it warms, and can mean nice weather. Atmospheric stability is when the air either rises and is unstable or falls and is stable.
What are Cumuliform clouds?
Convective clouds or cumuliform clouds (Cu) look like stacks of cotton balls. They form when warm humid air rises through cooler surrounding air in the atmosphere. The buoyancy (tendency of objects to sink or rise due to density differences with their surroundings) associated with the warm air drives strong updrafts.
What is the difference between Cumuliform clouds and stratiform clouds?
– There are two types of clouds. Stratiform or stratus clouds indicate stability. Stratus means layered. Cumuliform or cumulus clouds are “puffy” and indicate instability.
How do you tell if a cloud is stable or unstable?
What do stability and instability look like? The clearest way to observe the difference between a stable and an unstable air mass is to look at the clouds: A stable atmosphere will have largely flat layers of cloud which, although they may exhibit some lumpiness, will not extend far upwards.
How are Cumuliform clouds formed?
What are the characteristics of Cumuliform clouds?
What kind of clouds form in unstable air?
When unstable air lies above stable air, convective currents aloft sometimes form middle and high level cumuliform clouds. In relatively shallow layers they occur as altocumulus and ice crystal cirrocumulus clouds. Altocumulus castellanus clouds develop in deeper midlevel unstable layers.
How are stratiform clouds different from cumuliform clouds?
Moreover, stratiform clouds have fairly smooth bottoms and tops (think of the smooth top of a layer of fog) compared to cumuliform clouds, which look like uneven heaps of cotton. You can see the visual “smoothness” of stratiform clouds in the images below, which show cirrostratus (left), altostratus (middle), and stratus (right).
What is the difference between stable and unstable air?
A stable atmosphere resists any upward or downward displacement. An unstable atmosphere allows an upward or downward disturbance to grow into a vertical or convective current. This chapter first examines fundamental changes in upward and downward moving air and then relates stable and unstable air to clouds, weather, and flying.
What are the characteristics of an unstable air mass?
Characteristics typical of an unstable and a stable air mass are as follows: Unstable Air Stable Air Cumuliform clouds Stratiform clouds and fog Showery precipitation Continuous precipitation Rough air (turbulence) Smooth air Good visibility, except in blowing obstr Fair to poor visibility in haze and smok