Weather Glossary

Show Glossary Definitions

Acid rain
Advisory
Air mass
Air pressure
Anvil
Atmosphere
Aurora Borealis
Backing
Beaufort Wind Scale
Black ice
Blizzard
Blowing snow
Breeze
Chinook
Climate
Cloud
Cold Front
Condensation
Convection
Coriolis force
Cyclone
Deep low
Depression
Developing low
Dew-point temperature
Dog days
Doppler weather radar
Downdraft
Drizzle
Drought
Dust devil
El Nino
Equinox
Evaporation
Eye of the storm
Flurry
Fog
Forecast
Freezing rain or drizzle
Front
Frost
Fujita Scale
Funnel cloud
Funneling
Gale
Greenhouse Effect
Groundhog Day
Gulf Stream
Gust
Hail
Halo
Haze
Heat wave
High
Humidex
Humidity
Hurricane
Ice fog
Ice pellets
Indian summer
Inversion
Isobar
Jet stream
Killing frost
Kilopascal
Knot
La Nina
Lake breeze
Lake effect
Land breeze
Low
Mean temperature
Meteorology
Mist
Normal
Northern Lights
Outlook
Ozone
Parhelion
Polar night
Precipitation
Prevailing winds
Probability of Precipitation or POP
Radar
Rainbows

Rainbows form when sunlight is refracted, then reflected by raindrops, breaking the white light into the colours of the spectrum. On occasion, the coloured light is reflected from both the front and the back of the raindrops and 2 rainbows are visible. When this happens the bands of colour in the second rainbow are displayed in the opposite order of those in the primary rainbow which displays red on the outside and violet on the inside. To see a rainbow, you must have your back to the sun and face the rain shower.

Relative humidity
Ridge
Sea breeze
Snow squall
Snowbelt
Solstice
Squall
Squall line
Storm surge
Sublimation
Sunspot
Thunderstorm
Tornado
Trade winds
Trough
Turbulence
Typhoon
Updraft
Urban heat island
Veering
Virga
Warm front
Watch and Warnings
Waterspout
Whiteout
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