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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.

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Process

Explain the Bergeron-Findeisen process.

Key term

State the three main causes of air uplift.

Key term

Explain how orographic rainfall forms.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

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