WJEC A-Level Geography 601-8455-3
Coastal Landscapes
Glaciated Landscapes
Tectonic Hazards
Changing Places
Water and Carbon Cycles
Global Migration
Global Governance of the Oceans
EcosystemsContemporary theme
Economic Growth and Challenge: IndiaContemporary theme
Economic Growth and Challenge: ChinaContemporary theme
Development in an African ContextContemporary theme
Energy Challenges and DilemmasContemporary theme
Weather and ClimateContemporary theme
Fieldwork and Geographical Skills
Water and Carbon Cycles
Air uplift, cloud formation and precipitation
- 3 things to know
- A2 Unit 3
Overview
Three main causes of air uplift, how orographic rainfall forms and rain shadow.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
State the three main causes of air uplift.
Explain how orographic rainfall forms.
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
State the three main causes of air uplift.
Model answer
Orographic uplift over high relief, frontal uplift where air masses meet, and convectional uplift caused by surface heating.
- 2
Explain how orographic rainfall forms.
Model answer
Air is forced to rise over high ground, cools as it expands, reaches dew point and condenses, so cloud forms and rain falls on the windward slopes.
- 3
What is a rain shadow?
Model answer
A rain shadow is the drier area on the leeward side of high ground, where air that has already lost its moisture descends and warms.
- 4
Give a British example of a marked rain shadow.
Model answer
Eastern England lies in the rain shadow of the Welsh mountains and the Pennines and receives well under a third of the rainfall of upland Snowdonia.
- 5
Describe how rainfall is produced at a warm front.
Model answer
Warm moist air rides gently up over denser cold air and cools as it rises, giving extensive layered cloud and steady rain lasting many hours.
- 6
Why is rainfall at a cold front usually heavier but shorter-lived?
Model answer
Cold air undercuts the warm air and forces it up steeply, producing towering cloud and a short burst of intense rain.
Other ways to work this
The same content, four other ways.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Every question in Water and Carbon Cycles, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.