Weather fronts?

Question

Hey can someone explain to me what weather fronts are? Can you include what cold fronts and warm fronts are too? thanks in advance

Answer 1

When contrasting air masses lie side by side,the narrow zone of discontinuity, separating the two airmasses is called a front.

If the colder airmass actively replaces the warmer air at the surface then the front is referred to as a cold front.Cold fronts will have a steep slope and strong wind shift.Along a cold front,heavy rain,frequent thunderstorms, severe turbulence and line squalls are possible. As cold fronts move faster than warm fronts and the slope also is steeper,warm air mass is lifted up vigourously leading to the above mentioned weather conditions.

If the warmer flows actively upwards over the cold edge below,it is called a warm front.Warm fronts have gentle slope and the wind shift is less than that of the cold front.Stratiform(flat type) clouds form in front of the front.However if the ascending warm is conditionally unstable,scattered cumulonimbus and alto cumulus clouds  form in  front of the front with increase in the intensity of rainfall.Specific humidity and temperature increase with the passage of warm front.

Answer 2

Hello Manny,

When the warm and moist air from the tropical regions meet the cold and dry air from the poles, it forms a front, i.e. a line of separation between two air masses because air isolates and don't mix well.

Because the warm air is lighter than the cold one, the front is in a slope where the warmer air climbs over the colder one.

That process reduces the air pressure since there is now an upward movement. This is where frontal low pressures are born, bringing wind and rain.

Because of the rotation of the earth, the low pressure will move eastward, pushing ahead the warm front where warm air climbs cold one; and dragging the cold front behind, where cold air moving faster pushes the warm one.

With time, the cold front will gain on the warm one and they will join in what is called an occlusion front.

Warm fronts are characteristic by an advancing low cloud ceiling and increasing rainfall. A cold front is characteristic by its unstable air mass; rain showers, wind gusts and sometimes thunderstorms.