Glossary of meteorology

This glossary of meteorology is a list of terms and concepts relevant to meteorology and atmospheric science, their sub-disciplines, and related fields.

Also actiniform.Also adiabatic warming.Also barometric pressure.Sometimes called aerology.Also simply called an area forecast.Also baroclinicity.Also barotropicity.Also clear ice.Also blocking high and blocking anticyclone.Also standing cloud.Also castellatus.Also pilot balloon or pibal.Also climate science.Also irisation.Also cloud genus.Also saddle point and neutral point.Also cold spell and cold snap.Also vortex Crow instability.Also red adaptation goggles.Also daybreak.Also dewpoint or dew-point.Also non-adiabatic process.Also simply diffuse radiation.Also diurnal range.Also drouth.Also heat storm.Also duster or duststorm.Also atmometer.Also fetch length.Also fire devil and fire tornado.Also pyrocumulus and fire cloud.Also beaver's tail.Also white rainbow, mist bow, and cloud bow.Also foehn wind.Also front-flank downdraft.Often used interchangeably with scud.Also simply called the F scale.Also glazed frost.Also soft hail and snow pellets.Also gust front tornado.Also tropical cell.Also Lower Atmosphere Severity Index.Also apparent temperature, felt air temperature, and humiture.Also velocity diagram.Also huayco.Also the doldrums or the calms.Also simply jet.Also jet stream core or jet maximum.Also George's index.Also catabatic wind, drainage wind, or fall wind.Also chamsin, hamsin, and khamaseen.Also lee depression, orographic depression, and dynamic trough.Also rendered as LIDAR, LiDAR, or LADAR.Also maritime climate.Also moisture content or water content.Also mudslide.Also mother-of-pearl cloud.Also northeaster.Also Canterbury arch; associated with nor'wester.Also octa.Also orographic uplift.Also gust front.Also the ozone shield and ozonosphere.Also scud; often used interchangeably with fractus.Also sun dog or mock sun.Also Pascal's principle.Also Fujita-Pearson scale or F-P-P scale.Also cap cloud or scarf cloud.Also polar anticyclone.Also polar-air depression.Also total precipitable water (TPW).Also psychrometry and hygrometry.Also solarimeter.Also stratospheric oscillation.Also geostrophic approximation and pseudogeostrophic approximation.Also radio-sounding device.Also wet season and green season.Also udometer, pluviometer, and ombrometer.Often simply showers.Also retrograde motion.Also wedge.Also long wave or planetary wave.Also simply called the Saffir–Simpson scale.(sing.)

sastruga; also spelled zastrugiAlso moist adiabat.Also moist adiabatic lapse rate.Also ocean surface temperature.Also arcus cloud.Sometimes stylized as SKYWARN.Also snow bale or snow donut.Often used interchangeably with winter storm.Also rocketsonde, research rocket, and suborbital rocket.Also spoondrift.Also simply Storm Data.Also plough wind, thundergust, and hurricane of the prairie.Also cauda.Also thermal column.Also electrical storm and lightning storm.Also twister, whirlwind, and cyclone.Also debris cloud or debris ball.Also extended tornado outbreak.Variously hurricane, typhoon, tropical storm, cyclonic storm, or simply cyclone.Also vertical draft.(pl.)

vortices or vortexesAlso murus and pedestal cloud.Also sounding balloon.Also wind vane and weathercock.Also wind chill index and wind chill factor.Sometimes used interchangeably with wind gradient.Often used interchangeably with snowstorm.Also snowspout.Also spelled dzud.

The properties of Earth's atmosphere vary by altitude across a series of distinct layers.
A radar image showing a distinct bow echo in a line of thunderstorms over Kansas City, Missouri
Very large air masses (and the clouds within them) spiral counterclockwise around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure in this extratropical cyclone over Iceland
The major circulation cells of the Earth's atmosphere
Numerous hailstones accumulated on the ground following a hailstorm
Icicles hanging from the eaves of a building
An illustration of how a cloud-to-ground lightning strike occurs when a negatively charged "leader" projecting downward from a cloud meets a positively charged leader projecting upward from the ground
Lithometeor at sunset in Berlin on 25 February 2021, cloudless sky with Saharan Air Layer.
A coastal roll cloud
A tornado in the U.S. state of Oklahoma