Climatology
Final Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Climatology is the scientific study of the Earth's climate system, exploring the patterns, causes, and effects of climate variability and change over time. This course covers the fundamental principles of atmospheric processes, global and regional climate patterns, climate classification, and the mechanisms driving weather and long-term climatic trends. Students examine the data collection methods used in climatological research, investigate the impact of natural and anthropogenic factors on climate, and analyze the implications of climate change on ecosystems and human society. The course also introduces approaches to climate modeling and forecasting, providing a comprehensive foundation for understanding contemporary climate issues.
Recommended Textbook
Meteorology Today An Introduction to Weather Climate and the Environment 2nd Edition by C.
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Chapter 1: Earth and Its Atmosphere
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Q1) What causes air pressure? Why does air pressure decrease with increasing altitude?
Answer: Answers may vary.
Q2) If a time machine transported you to the early days of the Earth's atmosphere, before plants and animals existed on our planet, which of the following best describes what would happen?
A)You would slowly photodissociate.
B)You would be crushed by the atmospheric pressure.
C)There would be enough oxygen in the air for you to breathe.
D)You would be outgassed.
Answer: C
Q3) Which of the following statements accurately compares how air density and air pressure decrease as atmospheric altitude increases?
A)Air density decreases much less than air pressure decreases.
B)Air density decreases much more than air pressure decreases.
C)Air density decreases in much the same way as air pressure decreases.
D)Air density decreases in a completely different way than air pressure decreases.
Answer: C
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Chapter 2: Energy: Warming Earth and the Atmosphere
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Q1) According to Wien's displacement law, which of the following expressions describes the wavelength at which maximum radiation occurs?
A)The wavelength is inversely proportional to the temperature.
B)The wavelength is proportional to the pressure.
C)The wavelength is proportional to the temperature.
D)The wavelength is inversely proportional to the pressure.
Answer: A
Q2) Which of the following gases is NOT considered one that is responsible for enhancing the Earth's greenhouse effect?
A)chlorofluorocarbons
B)carbon dioxide
C)molecular oxygen
D)nitrous oxide
Answer: C
Q3) In what ways is the atmospheric greenhouse different from an agricultural greenhouse?
Answer: Answers may vary.
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Chapter 3: Seasonal and Daily Temperatures
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Q1) Everything else being equal, above which of the following surfaces does the lowest air temperature occur on a winter night?
A)surface covered with water
B)surface covered with vegetation
C)surface covered with snow
D)bare surface
Answer: C
Q2) Which of the following statements describes wind-chill factor?
A)It indicates the temperature at which water freezes on exposed skin.
B)It relates body heat loss in wind conditions to an equivalent temperature with no wind.
C)It tells farmers when to protect crops from a freeze.
D)It takes into account humidity and air temperature in expressing the current air temperature.
Answer: B
Q3) What types of temperature data might be appropriate to include in a short description of a city or region's climate?
Answer: Answers may vary.
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Chapter 4: Atmospheric Humidity
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Sample Questions
Q1) During the winter, which of these factors leads to the irritation of the mucus membranes in the nose and throat?
A)the low relative humidity
B)the wind chill
C)the reduced daylight
D)the low air temperature
Q2) Which of the following factors will increase in a rising parcel of air?
A)air temperature
B)saturation vapour pressure
C)mixing ratio
D)relative humidity
Q3) How much water would cover the globe if all the water vapour in the atmosphere condensed and fell to the ground?
A)about 100 centimetres
B)about 1 metre
C)about 2.5 centimetres
D)about 1 millimetre
Q4) In order to reduce evaporation and conserve water, is it better to water a lawn in the early morning or early evening? Explain why.
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Chapter 5: Condensation: Dew, Fog, and Clouds
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Q1) List one or more key identifying features for each of the ten basic cloud types. Which cloud types might have fairly similar appearances and thus be difficult to identify?
Q2) Which of the following cloud types can be associated with all types of weather systems, including fair weather?
A)cumulonimbus
B)nimbostratus
C)mammatus
D)cirrus
Q3) Which of the following types of fog most likely form above a relatively warm lake on a cold, calm, autumn morning?
A)steam fog
B)radiation fog
C)frontal fog
D)advection fog
Q4) Which of the following statements describes how frontal fog most commonly forms?
A)It forms as warm raindrops fall into a layer of colder air.
B)It forms as cold raindrops fall into a layer of warmer air.
C)It forms as warm raindrops fall into a layer of windy air.
D)It forms as cold raindrops fall into a layer of windy air.
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Chapter 6: Stability and Cloud Development
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Q1) Which of the following conditions describes when a parcel of saturated air releases the most latent heat?
A)when the air parcel is rising and cold
B)when the air parcel is rising and warm
C)when the air parcel is sinking and warm
D)when the air parcel is sinking and cold
Q2) Which of the following pr°Cesses can generate the convective instability ass°Ciated with severe thunderstorms and tornadoes?
A)forcing a layer of moist air to descend a mountain range
B)creating shadows on the land surface
C)heating the upper portion of an unsaturated layer of air
D)lifting a stable air layer whose surface is humid and whose top is dry
Q3) Which of the following describes what an adiabatic chart is useful for determining?
A)isobars
B)a station model
C)the wind speed
D)the lifting condensation level
Q4) Explain how the stability of the atmosphere can affect the types of clouds that form.
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Chapter 7: Precipitation
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Q1) Which of the following describes the most common snow condition that produces a creaking sound when someone is walking on snow?
A)old snow when the air temperature is above -10°C
B)old snow when the air temperature is near freezing
C)new snow when the air temperature is below -10°C
D)new snow when the air temperature is near freezing
Q2) Which of the following changes happen as a result of freshly fallen snow?
A)Sound waves are amplified.
B)Sound waves are absorbed.
C)The intensity of visible light is decreased.
D)The intensity of visible light is enhanced.
Q3) Which of the following cloud types produces precipitation by the collision-coalescence process only?
A)a thick, supercooled cumulonimbus cloud with abundant nuclei
B)a thick, warm cumulus cloud
C)a thick, cold cumulus cloud
D)a thick, cold nimbostratus cloud
Q4) Does the heaviest snowfall occur on an unusually cold night or a night when the temperature is just a little below freezing? Explain.
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Chapter 8: Air Pressure and Winds
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Q1) The pressure announced on last night's television weather broadcast was 100.6. Explain how this was measured and give the units. Is this considered an unusually highor low-pressure value?
Q2) Suppose a station at sea level measures an air pressure of 1030 hPa. Under standard conditions, which of the following values is the most likely air pressure at an elevation of 600 metres above this station?
A)970 hPa
B)1024 hPa
C)1030 hPa
D)1090 hPa
Q3) Which of the following gives the name for a wind that blows at a constant speed parallel to curved isobars or contour lines?
A)geostrophic wind
B)cyclonic wind
C)gradient wind
D)convergent wind
Q4) Explain why it is often windy at the beach. What forces are responsible, and how do beachfront conditions differ from conditions farther inland?
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Chapter 9: Wind: Small-Scale and Local Systems
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Q1) Which of the following features could indicate the prevailing wind direction?
A)stumped trees
B)sand dunes
C)sand bar
D)sand vegetation
Q2) Which of the following winds often result in cumulus clouds that appear above isolated mountain peaks?
A)katabatic winds
B)valley breezes
C)fall winds
D)mountain winds
Q3) Will a valley breeze or a mountain breeze produce clouds? Explain.
Q4) Pedalling a bicycle into a 30 km/h wind requires how much more effort compared to pedalling into a 10 km/h wind?
A)eighteen times as much
B)nine times as much
C)six times as much
D)three times as much
Q5) Explain how lake breezes in southern Ontario contribute to the formation of thunderstorms in the summer.
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Chapter 10: Wind: Global Systems
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Q1) On a weather map of the northern hemisphere, in which of the following locations are trade winds observed?
A)between the polar front and the subtropical highs
B)between the subpolar lows and the subtropical highs
C)north of the polar front
D)south of the subtropical highs
Q2) If you were in southern Ontario and you wanted to stand with the average prevailing winds blowing in your face, in which direction would you face?
A)north
B)south
C)east
D)west
Q3) What occurs during a major El Niño event? How might this affect global wind and precipitation patterns?
Q4) Which of the following factors defines a thermally direct cell?
A)It is driven by energy from the sun.
B)It occurs on both sides of a large lake or ocean.
C)It occurs in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
D)It involves heat.
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Chapter 11: Air Masses and Fronts
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Q1) Which of the following statements gives the main reason why the wintertime mP air masses are less common along the North American Atlantic coast than along the Pacific coast?
A)The water is warmer along the Atlantic coast.
B)The prevailing winds aloft are westerly.
C)The source region for mP air on the Atlantic coast is western Europe.
D)The water is colder along the Pacific coast.
Q2) Which of the following terms refers to the rising of warm air up and over cold air?
A)overrunning
B)frontolysis
C)occlusion
D)frontogenesis
Q3) From which of the following directions is the wind at point 3 most likely coming from?
A)northeast
B)southeast
C)northwest
D)southwest
Q4) What types of weather changes accompany the passage of a dryline?
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Chapter 12: Middle-Latitude Cyclones
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Q1) Which of the following scientists was one of the meteorologists who helped develop the polar-front theory of a developing wave cyclone?
A)Rossby
B)Bjerknes
C)Thornthwaite
D)McSorley
Q2) When a deep upper-level trough is located to the east of a surface anticyclone, in which of the following directions will the surface anticyclone tend to move?
A)northwest
B)southwest
C)northeast
D)southeast
Q3) Which of the following defines cyclogenesis?
A)the weakening or dissipation of a middle-latitude cyclone
B)the development or strengthening of a middle-latitude cyclone
C)the exact midpoint of a middle-latitude cyclone
D)the development or strengthening of a tropical cyclone
Q4) What are diffluence and speed divergence? How do these differ from confluence and speed convergence?
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Chapter 13: Weather Forecasting
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Q1) Explain the significance of CAPE to forecasting severe thunderstorm development.
Q2) What is a squall line? Where do squall lines tend to form?
Q3) Which of the following statements describes an important principle in the electrification of a cumulonimbus cloud?
A)Raindrops are always positively charged.
B)Supercooled water is always negatively charged.
C)Ice crystals are always negatively charged.
D)Positive ions transfer from a warm object to a cold object.
Q4) Which of the following describes where tornadoes are usually observed?
A)behind cold fronts
B)ahead of cold fronts
C)on the windward side of mountains
D)near large bodies of water
Q5) One thunderstorm can spawn several tornadoes. Which of the following describes how these tornadoes occur?
A)in families
B)in repetition
C)in unison
D)in sequence
Q6) Do invisible tornadoes exist? Explain.
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Chapter 14: Thunderstorms
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Q1) Which of the following is represented by the eyewall in a hurricane?
A)a region of light winds and low pressure
B)the exact centre of the storm
C)the area of broken cloudiness at the centre of the storm
D)a zone of intense thunderstorms around the centre of the storm
Q2) By which of the following methods have scientists tried to modify hurricanes?
A)seeding the hurricanes with silver iodide
B)igniting huge smoke bombs in the eye of the storm
C)putting an oil slick over the ocean water and igniting it
D)seeding the hurricanes with hair-thin pieces of aluminum called chaff
Q3) Which of the following scales measures hurricane strength based on hurricane winds and central pressure?
A)Richter scale
B)Beaufort scale
C)Saffir-Simpson scale
D)Enhanced Fujita scale
Q4) List and describe some of the conditions that are favourable to hurricane development. What atmospheric conditions inhibit hurricane formation and growth?
Q5) Explain why calm weather typically exists in the eye of a hurricane.
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Chapter 15: Tornadoes
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Q1) Which of the following descriptions is associated with an omega high?
A)It does not stay in the same geographic area for long.
B)It produces high surface wind speeds.
C)It forms when the flow aloft is meridional.
D)It is known as a shallow high.
Q2) When examining a surface map, which of the following factors can be used to predict the movement of a surface low-pressure area?
A)orientation of the isobars behind a cold front
B)orientation of the isobars in front of warm front
C)movement during the previous two hours
D)region of greatest pressure decrease
Q3) Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of four different types of weather forecasting methods.
Q4) Which of the following terms refers to the forecasting of weather by computer?
A)extended forecast
B)numerical weather prediction
C)weather-type forecasting
D)climatological forecast
Q5) Explain the process of ensemble forecasting and how it is useful to meteorologists.
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Chapter 16: Hurricanes
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Q1) Which of the following describes the likely conditions in the centre of a large, middle-latitude continent?
A)abundant precipitation all year long
B)a precipitation maximum during winter
C)little precipitation at any time of year
D)a precipitation maximum during summer
Q2) Which of the following climate types is most likely associated with savanna grass?
A)tropical monsoon (Am)
B)tropical rainforest (Af)
C)semi-arid (BS)
D)tropical wet-and-dry (Aw)
Q3) Which of the following climate types refers to a region that has long, very cold winters and average temperatures that exceed 10°C only during one or two months of the summer?
A)subpolar (Dfc) climate
B)alpine (An) climate
C)polar tundra (ET) climate
D)polar ice cap (EF) climate
Q4) Which climate type(s) are most affected by climate change? Why?
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Chapter 17: Earths Changing Climate
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Q1) Explain how analysis of glacial and polar ice cores provides important clues about past climate.
Q2) In association with other natural factors, the Milankovitch cycles explain the advance and retreat of glaciers according to which of the following time periods?
A)hundreds of millions of years
B)several million years
C)ten thousand years to one hundred thousand years
D)hundreds of thousands of years
Q3) What are some of the possible consequences of climate change?
Q4) Where is the Sahel located? Is this a region of scarce, variable, or abundant rainfall?
Describe the biogeophysical feedback mechanism whereby a reduction in surface vegetation might cause a reduction in precipitation amounts.
Q5) Which of the following conditions will likely occur if global temperatures continue to rise?
A)The oceans will increase the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
B)The oceans will have no effect on atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
C)The oceans will reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
D)The oceans could increase or reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
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Chapter 18: Global Climate
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Q1) Describe how the use of a tall smokestack might improve air quality in the vicinity of a large industrial facility.
Q2) Explain how ozone can have both a beneficial and a detrimental role in the Earth's atmosphere.
Q3) Is the ozone that is found near the Earth's surface a primary or a secondary pollutant? When during the day do you expect to find the peak concentrations of ozone? What are some of the environmental concerns associated with ozone?
Q4) Which of the following conditions is likely associated with a country breeze?
A)a large high pressure area that forms over a city
B)a hot, humid, summer day in a large city
C)a period of heavy rain that falls over a city
D)a strong urban heat island
Q5) What is the urban heat island effect? How could an urban heat island affect atmospheric conditions nearby?
Q6) Which type of air is typically more polluted?
A)indoor
B)continental
C)outdoor
D)coastal
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Chapter 19: Air Pollution
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Q1) Which of the following is an accurate statement about a superior mirage?
A)It requires a temperature inversion near the surface.
B)It causes objects to appear upside down.
C)It occurs only on a very hot day.
D)It is caused by images being refracted through ice crystals.
Q2) With a sketch, show why the setting sun often appears red to an observer on the ground. Why does the sun appear white at noon and red at sunrise and sunset?
Q3) What colour would the sky be if air molecules selectively scattered only the longest wavelengths of visible light?
A)blue
B)black
C)red
D)white
Q4) Which of the following describes the scattering effect of oxygen and nitrogen on light?
A)Oxygen and nitrogen scatter entirely different wavelengths.
B)They are selective scatterers.
C)They scatter all wavelengths of light equally.
D)Unlike other atmospheric gases, they don't scatter any wavelengths of light.
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