{"id":98,"date":"2023-05-18T21:42:02","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T09:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communityweather.org.nz\/?page_id=98"},"modified":"2023-05-18T22:27:42","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T10:27:42","slug":"weather-glossary-c","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/communityweather.org.nz\/?page_id=98","title":{"rendered":"Weather Glossary \u2013 C"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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C<\/span><\/p>

CAA<\/strong>\u00a0– Cold Air Advection. The movement of colder air toward a fixed point on the earth’s surface.<\/span><\/p>

CALM<\/strong>\u00a0– the absence of apparent motion in the air.<\/span><\/p>

CAP<\/strong>\u00a0– Temperature inversion which prevents convection from occurring.<\/span><\/p>

CAT<\/strong>\u00a0– A category. Usually refers to a category of precipitation given by the forecast models.<\/span><\/p>

CEILING<\/strong>\u00a0– The height of the lowest layer of clouds, when the sky is broken or overcast.<\/span><\/p>

CELSIUS<\/strong>\u00a0– a temperature scale in which zero is the freezing point of water and one hundred is the boiling point.<\/span><\/p>

CHANCE<\/strong>\u00a0(CHC)\u00a0<\/b>– A 30, 40 or 50 percent chance of occurrence of measurable precipitation.<\/span><\/p>

CHINOOK-<\/strong>\u00a0A warm, dry wind that blows along the east slopes of the northern Rocky Mountains.<\/span><\/p>

CIRRIFORM<\/strong>\u00a0– High altitude ice clouds with a very thin wispy appearance.<\/span><\/p>

CIRROCUMULUS<\/strong>\u00a0– Cirrus clouds with vertical development.<\/span><\/p>

CIRROSTRATUS<\/strong>\u00a0– Cirrus clouds with a flat sheetlike appearance.<\/span><\/p>

CIRRUS<\/strong>\u00a0(CI)<\/b>\u00a0– High clouds, usually above 18,000 feet, composed of ice crystals.<\/span><\/p>

CLASSIC\u00a0<\/b>EVENT<\/strong>– Having all the ingredients for a specific type of weather (i.e. classic severe weather event, classic Nor’easter)<\/span><\/p>

CLEAR<\/strong>\u00a0– Sky condition of less than 1\/10 cloud coverage.<\/span><\/p>

CLIMATE<\/strong>\u00a0– The historical record of average daily and seasonal weather events.<\/span><\/p>

CLOSED\u00a0<\/b>LOW<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>(CUT OFF LOW) –<\/strong>\u00a0A low pressure center having a closed circulation, which is used in reference to systems in the upper levels of the atmosphere. Closed lows that become cut off from the main flow pattern are called cut-off lows.<\/span><\/p>

CLOUD\u00a0<\/b>CONDENSATION\u00a0<\/b>NUCLEI<\/strong>\u00a0– small particles in the air on which water vapor condenses and forms cloud droplets.<\/span><\/p>

CLOUDY<\/strong>– the state of the sky when 9\/10ths or more of the sky is covered by clouds.<\/span><\/p>

COASTAL\u00a0<\/b>FLOODING<\/strong>\u00a0– Inundation of coastal areas from waves and storm surge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

COLD\u00a0<\/b>CORE\u00a0<\/b>HIGH<\/strong>– A dome of cold surface high pressure that originates from the high latitudes.<\/span><\/p>

COLD\u00a0<\/b>CORE\u00a0<\/b>LOW<\/strong>– A low pressure which has the coldest temperatures located near its center. A cold core low is deep and is often associated with the polar jet stream. Mid-latitude cyclones are cold core lows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

COLD\u00a0<\/b>FRONT<\/strong>\u00a0– The boundary between a cold air mass that is advancing and a relatively warmer airmass. Generally characterized by steady precipitation followed by showery precipitation.<\/span><\/p>

CONDENSATION<\/strong>\u00a0– The process of gas changing to liquid. The process by which water vapor changes into water droplets and clouds.<\/span><\/p>

CONDENSATION\u00a0<\/b>PRESSURE\u00a0<\/b>DEFICIT<\/strong>\u00a0(COND PRES DEF)<\/b>– On an isentropic chart (a layer of constant potential temperature), condensation pressure deficit represents the amount of lift, expressed in millibars, needed to saturate an air parcel.<\/span><\/p>

CONDUCTION<\/strong>\u00a0– the transfer of heat between bodies that are in contact.<\/span><\/p>

CONFLUENCE<\/strong>– A 2-D process in which airstreams move toward each other at some angle.<\/span><\/p>

CONQ<\/strong>– Converging Q vectors. Indicates air will rises due to low level warm air advection and\/or upper level divergence<\/span><\/p>

CONSIDERABLE\u00a0<\/b>CLOUDINESS<\/strong>\u00a0– Between 7\/10 and 8\/10 cloud cover.<\/span><\/p>

CONTINENTAL\u00a0<\/b>AIR\u00a0<\/b>MASS<\/strong>\u00a0– A dry air mass originating over a large land area.<\/span><\/p>

CONVECTION<\/strong>\u00a0(CNVTN)\u00a0<\/b>– the transfer of heat within a gas or liquid by their movement.<\/span><\/p>

CONVECTIVE<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/b>INSTABILITY<\/strong>– Instability caused by very dry air advecting in the mid-levels of the troposphere over a warm and moist lower troposphere. Dynamic lifting causes the mid-levels to cool at a greater rate than the lower troposphere.<\/span><\/p>

CONVERGENCE<\/strong>– A 1-D process in which higher momentum air moves into lower momentum air.<\/span><\/p>

CORIOLIS FORCE –<\/strong>\u00a0An apparent force caused by the rotation of the earth. In the Northern Hemisphere winds are deflected to the right, and in the Southern Hemisphere to the left.<\/span><\/p>

CORONA<\/strong>\u00a0– a disk of light surrounding the sun or moon; this is a result of the diffraction of light by small water droplets.<\/span><\/p>

COUNTY WARNING AREA (CWA)\u00a0<\/strong>– The area of responsibility that each National Weather Service office has for its warnings and forecasts.<\/span><\/p>

CUMULONIMBUS<\/strong>\u00a0– A vertically developed cumulus cloud, often capped by an anvil shaped cloud. Also called a thunderstorm cloud, it is frequently accompanied by heavy showers, lightning, thunder, and sometimes hail or gusty winds.<\/span><\/p>

CUMULUS\u00a0<\/b>CLOUD<\/strong>\u00a0(CU)<\/b>\u00a0– A cloud in the shape of individual detached domes, with a flat base and a bulging upper portion resembling cauliflower.<\/span><\/p>

CWA<\/strong>– County Warning Area<\/span><\/p>

CYCLONE –\u00a0<\/strong>An area of low pressure around which winds blow counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. Also the term used for a hurricane in the Indian Ocean and in the Western Pacific Ocean.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

C CAA\u00a0– Cold Air Advection. The movement of colder air toward a fixed point on the earth’s surface. CALM\u00a0– the absence of apparent motion in the...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":48,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-98","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communityweather.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communityweather.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communityweather.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communityweather.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communityweather.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/communityweather.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/98\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212,"href":"https:\/\/communityweather.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/98\/revisions\/212"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communityweather.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/48"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communityweather.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}