Daniel Bezte - University of Winnipeg for The Western Producer

One of the contributors to wind is the Coriolis force. The Coriolis force arises from the fact that the Earth rotates. | Photo: File
Last issue, we talked about how the pressure gradient force is the main driving force of wind in our atmosphere and that it exists due to the unequal heating of the Earth’s surface.

Now, if we were to take a simple look at the Earth, this would mean that the polar regions would have high pressure because they are cold and the equatorial regions would be areas of low pressure because they are warm.

Severe thunderstorms need rising air, and to get that you need heat, or rather, you need a large difference in temperature between two areas.

Many people associate thunderstorms with a very hot day, but just having one of those does not mean that there is a large difference in temperature.

To get thunderstorms on a hot day, you need to have cool air aloft.

In the last issue we discussed warm and cold clouds, and we learned that most of our local precipitation is produced in cold clouds, which means that most of it starts off as snow, even in the summer.

This week we are going to look at the different types of precipitation we experience and examine how each type forms.

Next on our list of precipitation types is sleet or ice pellets.

This form of precipitation is created when raindrops freeze in the air before they reach the ground.