Abbreviation used on long-term climate outlooks issued by CPC to indicate areas that are likely to be below normal for a given parameter (temperature, precipitation, etc.).
- Browse Related Terms: A, B, CL, Climate Diagnostics Bulletin, Climatological Outlook, Drought Assessments, ENSO Diagnostic Discussion, Hazards Assessment, OTLK, PWO, SWODY2
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A thunderstorm in which new development takes place on the upwind side (usually the west or southwest side), such that the storm seems to remain stationary or propagate in a backward direction.
- Browse Related Terms: Avalanche Advisory, Back-building Thunderstorm, BRN, Bulk Richardson Number, CSI, Dry Line Storm, DVLP, Energy Helicity Index, EXTRM, Loaded Gun (Sounding), Symmetric Double Eye, T Rolls, Tilted Storm, Tilted Updraft, Transverse Bands, Transverse Rolls
A cold front moving south or southwest along the Atlantic seaboard and Great Lakes; these are especially common during the spring months.
- Browse Related Terms: Arctic front, Back Door Cold Front, Bubble High, CDFNT, Dew Point Front, Dynamic Lifting, Extratropical Cyclone, FNT, Outflow Boundary, Potential Vorticity, Pre-Frontal Squall Line, TROP, Tropopause Jet
[Slang], a thunderstorm anvil which spreads upwind, against the flow aloft. A back-sheared anvil often implies a very strong updraft and a high severe weather potential.
- Browse Related Terms: Anvil, Anvil Crawler, Anvil Zits, Back-sheared Anvil, Blue Watch or Blue Box, Cumuliform Anvil, Knuckles, Mammatus Clouds, Mushroom, Orphan Anvil, Positive Cloud to Ground Lightning, Spin-Up, SPRD, Vort Max, Wildfire
A fire started to stop an advancing fire by creating a burned area in its path.
- Browse Related Terms: AAAS, ADVN, Backfire, MAXT, Medium Range
In hydrologic terms, the backing up of water through a conduit or channel in the direction opposite to normal flow.
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(abbrev. BCKG)- A counterclockwise shift in wind direction (for example, south winds shifting to the east).
- Browse Related Terms: Backing, BCKG, Plume Impingement, Sea Breeze Front, SHFT, Veering, WSHFT
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Winds which shift in a counterclockwise direction with time at a given location (e.g. from southerly to southeasterly), or change direction in a counterclockwise sense with height (e.g. westerly at the surface but becoming more southerly aloft). The opposite of veering winds.
In storm spotting, a backing wind usually refers to the turning of a south or southwest surface wind with time to a more east or southeasterly direction. Backing of the surface wind can increase the potential for tornado development by increasing the directional shear at low levels.
- Browse Related Terms: Backing Winds, Directional Shear, SELY, SLY, SWLY, Veering Winds, VR, Wind Shift Line
The portion of power scattered back in the incident direction.
- Browse Related Terms: Backscatter, BEAM WIDTH, Prevailing Visibility, Rayleigh scattering, Refraction, Sector Visibility, Sidelobe, Strike
In hydrologic terms, a rod reading taken on a point of known elevation, a benchmark or a turning point. Backsights are added to the known elevation to arrive at the height of the instrument. With a known height of the instrument, the telescope can be used to determine the elevation of other points in the vicinity.
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In hydrologic terms, the longitudinal profile of the surface of a liquid in a non-uniform flow in an open channel, when the water surface is not parallel to the invert owing to the depth of water having been increased by the interposition of an obstruction such as a dam or weir. The term is sometimes used in a generic sense to denote all water surface profiles; or for profiles where the water is flowing at depths greater than the critical.
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In hydrologic terms, the effect which a dam or other obstruction has in raising the surface of the water upstream from it.
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Hydrologic terms, upstream flooding caused by downstream conditions such as channel restriction and/or high flow in a downstream confluence stream.
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Binary Angular Measure
- Browse Related Terms: ABNDT, Accuracy, BAM, Bathymetry, Climate change, Correlation, Dobson Unit, TEMP, Temperature, variance
A filter whose frequencies are between given upper and lower cutoff values, while substantially attenuating all frequencies outside these values (this band).
- Browse Related Terms: bandpass filter, GF, Ground Fog, LWR, Smoke Dispersal, SX, WBZ, Wet Bulb Zero
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The frequency range between the lowest and highest frequencies that are passed through a component, circuit, or system with acceptable attenuation.
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In hydrologic terms, the margins of a channel. Banks are called right or left as viewed facing in the direction of the flow.
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In hydrologic terms, water absorbed and stored in the void in the soil cover in the bed and banks of a stream, lake, or reservoir, and returned in whole or in part as the level of water body surface falls.
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The water level, or stage, at which a stream, river or lake is at the top of its banks and any further rise would result in water moving into the flood plain.
- Browse Related Terms: Alert Stage, Bankfull, Bankfull Stage, CRP, E-3, Flood Stage Report, Flood of Record, Flood Profile, Forecast Crest, Forecast Point, Gaging station, Hydrograph, Monitor Stage, Reach, River Flooding, River Gage, River Gage Datum, River Observing Station, RVA, Stage, Wire Weight Gage
An established gage height at a given location along a river or stream, above which a rise in water surface will cause the river or stream to overflow the lowest natural stream bank somewhere in the corresponding reach. The term "lowest bank" is however, not intended to apply to an unusually low place or a break in the natural bank through which the water inundates a small area. Bankfull stage is not necessarily the same as flood stage.
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