Weather Words - Q

-- Q --

Quarter moon: Either of the two phases of the moon when its longitude differs by 90 degrees from that of the sun; the moon appears half full at these phases.

Quartering winds: Winds that blow from such a direction that they flow diagonally across a building, therefore blowing across two sides of the building at once rather than hitting just one side "face on."

Quasi-stationary front: (1) A front (boundary between two air masses) which is nearly stationary or is slowly fluctuating. A quasi-stationary front sometimes becomes a focus for heavy precipitation, and most of Chicago's heaviest rains have occurred with a quasi-stationary frontal boundary across the area. (2) A relatively motionless or slowly fluctuating front (boundary between two air masses); also called a stationary front. Winds blow approximately parallel to a quasi-stationary front, but in opposite directions on either side of the frontal boundary.

Quotations (1) Wes Browning: In reference to a snowfall of 0.4 inch that occurred in Chicago on January 3, 2000, forecaster Wes Browning of the Chicago National Weather Service office said, "It's the heaviest snow of the century." (2) Robert Heinlein: "Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get." Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988); in the 1973 science fiction novel, Time Enough For Love. (3) Walt Kelly: "What's good about March? Well, for one thing, it keeps February and April apart." - Walt Kelly (1913-1973), creator of the comic strip, "Pogo". (4) David Ludlum: "September is a floating month on the meteorological calendar, moving back and forth from summer into autumn, and autumn into summer." (5) Sydney Smith: "Heat, ma'am!" I said; "It was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones." Sydney Smith (1771-1845) from Lady Holland's Memoir, Volume One.