1. Degrees Celsius (°C)
2. Central
- Browse Related Terms: C, CDD, Cooling Degree Days, Degree Day, HDD, Heating Degree Days, Supercooled Liquid Water
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Continental Air Mass
- Browse Related Terms: A AMS, C AMS, CAD, Cold Air Avalanche, Cold Air Dam, Cold Air Damming (CAD), cold front, Continental Air Mass, Effective Topography, Extratropical, front, K AMS, Marine Push, Maritime Air Mass, Maritime Polar Air Mass, Maritime Tropical Air Mass, Orographic Precipitation, Polar Front, Specific Humidity, Upslope Fog, Vortex, Warm front
Cloud-to-Air lightning.
- Browse Related Terms: CA, CC, CG, Dart Leader, Dry Thunderstorm, Flash Multiplicity, Heat Lightning, In-Cloud Lightning, Lightning, Lightning Channel, LTNG, St. Elmo's Fire, Staccato Lightning, Thunderstorm
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Cold Air Advection
- Browse Related Terms: Advection fog, CAA, CD, Cold Advection, Foehn Pause, Freezing Spray, Frostbite, Heavy Freezing Spray, Lake Effect Snow, Marine Inversion, Sea Fog, Stable, Stable Boundary Layer, Steam Fog, Thermal High, Thermal Wind, upwelling, WAA
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Cold Air Damming. The phenomenon in which a low-level cold air mass is trapped topographically. Often, this cold air is entrenched on the east side of mountainous terrain. Cold Air Damming often implies that the trapped cold air mass is influencing the dynamics of the overlying air mass, e.g. in an overrunning scenario. Effects on the weather may include cold temperatures, freezing precipitation, and extensive cloud cover
- Browse Related Terms: A AMS, C AMS, CAD, Cold Air Avalanche, Cold Air Dam, Cold Air Damming (CAD), cold front, Continental Air Mass, Effective Topography, Extratropical, front, K AMS, Marine Push, Maritime Air Mass, Maritime Polar Air Mass, Maritime Tropical Air Mass, Orographic Precipitation, Polar Front, Specific Humidity, Upslope Fog, Vortex, Warm front
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Centralized Automated Data Acquisition System - a system of two minicomputers in NWSH.
- Browse Related Terms: ADAPTATION (ADAPTABLE) PARAMETER, ADAS, ATDTDCS, AVHRR, AWIPS, CADAS, CCITT, DDS, GIS, long-term retention, real time, sampling frequency, Snotel
In hydrologic terms, the process of using historical data to estimate parameters in a hydrologic forecast technique such as SACSMA, routings, and unit hydrographs.
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A weather condition when no air motion (wind) is detected.
- Browse Related Terms: CALM, Coriolis force, Doppler Radar, Kinetic Energy, Radial Velocity, Spearhead Echo, Tilt, UVM, VRT MOTN
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A foehn wind that is channeled through a canyon as it descends the lee side of a mountain barrier.
- Browse Related Terms: Barrier Jet, Blocked Flow, Canyon Wind, Dividing Streamline, Dividing Streamline Height, Flow Splitting, Grout Curtain, Hydraulic Jump, Orographic Waves, Rain Shadow, Rotor Cloud, Terrain Forced Flow
(also called "Lid") A layer of relatively warm air aloft, usually several thousand feet above the ground, which suppresses or delays the development of thunderstorms. Air parcels rising into this layer become cooler than the surrounding air, which inhibits their ability to rise further and produce thunderstorms. As such, the cap often prevents or delays thunderstorm development even in the presence of extreme instability. However, if the cap is removed or weakened, then explosive thunderstorm development can occur.
The cap is an important ingredient in most severe thunderstorm episodes, as it serves to separate warm, moist air below and cooler, drier air above. With the cap in place, air below it can continue to warm and/or moisten, thus increasing the amount of potential instability. Or, air above it can cool, which also increases potential instability. But without a cap, either process (warming/moistening at low levels or cooling aloft) results in a faster release of available instability - often before instability levels become large enough to support severe weather development.
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A stationary cloud directly above an isolated mountain peak, with cloud base below the elevation of the peak.
- Browse Related Terms: Banner Cloud, Cap Cloud, ISOL, ISOLD, LALs
Convective Available Potential Energy. A measure of the amount of energy available for convection. CAPE is directly related to the maximum potential vertical speed within an updraft; thus, higher values indicate greater potential for severe weather. Observed values in thunderstorm environments often may exceed 1000 joules per kilogram (J/kg), and in extreme cases may exceed 5000 J/kg.
However, as with other indices or indicators, there are no threshold values above which severe weather becomes imminent. CAPE is represented on an upper air sounding by the area enclosed between the environmental temperature profile and the path of a rising air parcel, over the layer within which the latter is warmer than the former. (This area often is called positive area.) See also CIN.
- Browse Related Terms: CAPE, Capping, CIN, Convective Boundary Layer, Convective Inhibition, Equilibrium Level, Level of Free Convection, LFC, Lid, MLCAPE, MLLI, Positive Area, Regional Haze, Residual Layer, SBCAPE, Showalter Index, Summation Principle
In hydrologic terms,
1.The degree to which a material or object containing minute openings or passages, when immersed in a liquid, will draw the surface of the liquid above the hydrostatic level. Unless otherwise defined, the liquid is generally assumed to be water.
2. The phenomenon by which water is held in interstices above the normal hydrostatic level, due to attraction between water molecules.
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In hydrologic terms, the soil area just above the water table where water can rise up slightly through the cohesive force of capillary action. This layer ranges in depth from a couple of inches, to a few feet, and it depends on the pore sizes of the materials. The capillary fringe is also called the capillary zone.
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Waves caused by the initial wind stress on the water surface causes what are known as capillary waves. These have a wavelength of less than 1.73 cm, and the force that tries to restore them to equilibrium is the cohesion of the individual molecules. Capillary waves are important in starting the process of energy transfer from the air to the water.
- Browse Related Terms: Aquifer, Capillary Fringe, Capillary Waves, Capillary Zone, Effluent Stream, Ground water, Ground Water Overdraft, Influent Seepage, Influent Stream, Perched Groundwater, Phreatic water, Subsidence, Vadose Zone, Water table, Zone of aeration, Zone of saturation
Used interchangably with Capillary Fringe; the soil area just above the water table where water can rise up slightly through the cohesive force of capillary action. This layer ranges in depth from a couple of inches, to a few feet, and it depends on the pore sizes of the materials.
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A region of negative buoyancy below an existing level of free convection (LFC) where energy must be supplied to the parcel to maintain its ascent. This tends to inhibit the development of convection until some physical mechanism can lift a parcel to its LFC. The intensity of the cap is measured by its convective inhibition. The term capping inversion is sometimes used, but an inversion is not necessary for the conditions producing convective inhibition to exist.
- Browse Related Terms: CAPE, Capping, CIN, Convective Boundary Layer, Convective Inhibition, Equilibrium Level, Level of Free Convection, LFC, Lid, MLCAPE, MLLI, Positive Area, Regional Haze, Residual Layer, SBCAPE, Showalter Index, Summation Principle
Alternate term for Cap; a layer of relatively warm air aloft, usually several thousand feet above the ground, which suppresses or delays the development of thunderstorms. Air parcels rising into this layer become cooler than the surrounding air, which inhibits their ability to rise further and produce thunderstorms. As such, the cap often prevents or delays thunderstorm development even in the presence of extreme instability. However, if the cap is removed or weakened, then explosive thunderstorm development can occur.
The cap is an important ingredient in most severe thunderstorm episodes, as it serves to separate warm, moist air below and cooler, drier air above. With the cap in place, air below it can continue to warm and/or moisten, thus increasing the amount of potential instability. Or, air above it can cool, which also increases potential instability. But without a cap, either process (warming/moistening at low levels or cooling aloft) results in a faster release of available instability - often before instability levels become large enough to support severe weather development.
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Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms
- Browse Related Terms: CAPS, CENTROID, Climate Prediction Center, CNTR, CPC, ESP, Forecast, HPC, NWP, OPC, persistence, Prognostic Discussion, Public Severe Weather Outlook, SLOSH, Space Environment Center, SPC, SWODY1, Synoptic Track, TPC, Tropical Storm Summary
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CO2; a colorless and odorless gas which is the fourth most abundant constituent of dry air.
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