FRONTS Introduction When an air mass starts to move it will come across another air mass with different

characteristics. It is the basic property of air masses that they do not mix with each other, but tend to retain their individual properties and move along with each other in sloping boundaries. This would form a sharp line of demarcation that marks an The location of various Air Masses around the world in different seasons abrupt change from one air mass to the other. Since the air masses have different characteristics of temperature and density so this would cause one air mass to rise over the other. The rising air mass would get cooled and cloud formation will take place. This forms the basis of some of the major weather phenomena in the world e.g western disturbances in our region. Definition The boundary between two air masses is called as front. This may be as thin as two to three miles or as wide as fifty to seventy five miles. In the latter case it will be called as frontal zone. It is important to understand that a front is formed due to the movement of air mass in horizontal plane so the air in a front will have movement in two planes. The air would move horizontally and the warmer air would rise over colder air. Classification of Fronts Cold Front. When colder air replaces warm air at the surface it is called as a cold front. Simply we say that cold air is pushing warm air ahead and upwards forcing it to rise. Warm Front. When warm air replaces cold air at the surface it is called as warm front. Simply we can say that warm air is pushing cold air ahead and also rising over the cold air. Stationary Front. When two air masses are stationary with respect to each other and are laying side by side with no movement it is called as a stationary front. It is important to note that the air within each air mass night be moving but they are not pushing each other. Occlusion. The fronts are moving at different speeds so there could be occasions where two fronts will meet. In such situation there would be three air masses and their densities would govern their movement. The coldest air mass would lift the warmer air mass, which in turn would lift the warmest air mass.

Such a condition in which two fronts meet and as a result one starts to rise over the other is called as occlusion. The point where the two fronts meet is called as the triple point. The cold front has a higher speed so it is normally the cold front which catches up with warm front. There are primarily two types of occlusions:(a) Cold Occlusion. If the air behind a cold front is colder than the air ahead of a warm front, it is called as a cold occlusion. In this case, the warm front would rise over the cold front and at the surface; comparatively cold air would replace warm air. (b) Warm Occlusion. If the air behind a cold front is warmer than the air ahead of the warm front then it is called as a warm occlusion. In this case, the cold front would rise over the warm front and on the surface; comparatively warm air would replace cold air. Characteristics of Fronts. Whenever a front is formed various weather parameters, like temperature, pressure, clouds, winds etc, would also change. Also the The Fronts fronts have some particular patterns of slope and movement; in the subsequent paragraphs we will discuss the various characteristics of fronts. Slope. The cold air is denser therefore; whenever it comes across warm air it will tend to undercut the warm air. The warm air would also tend to rise over the cold air. This would result in a sloping boundary between the two air masses. The cold front has a slope of about 1:50 which means that a travel of 50 miles would raise the front by 1 mile. The warm fronts have a shallower slope which is about 1:50. The slope of a cold front is inclined backward whereas the lope of warm front is inclined forward. Movement of Fronts. Movement of a front is defied as the movement of front normal to itself and it is determine by the winds blowing across a front:(a) Warm Front. The air moving in contact with the ground is slowed down by the friction, so its speed is slower. Over land where the friction is maximum the warm front moves at a speed 1/2 to 2/3 of the wind speed at 2000 feet. (b) Cold Front. The slope of a cold front is inclined backward. In the case, the friction causes the cold air at 2000 feet to move faster and go ahead which forms nose of the cold front. This results in an unstable situation where cold dense air is riding over warm air. The cold air sinks down causing the nose to collapse and the front moves in jerks. Due to this reason, the speed of cold front is faster and rarely less than 2/3 of the wind speed at 2000 feet. Temperature. In a cold front cold air is replacing warm air at the surface so when a cold front passes the temperature could drop. Reverse happens in case of a warm front.

Pressure. (a) Warm Front. When a warm front is approaching, the cold air is being replaced by warm air. If we consider the column of air, we would find that with the approach of front the amount of cold air is reducing and that of warm air is increasing. As the cold air is denser and has more weight so the pressure would start to reduce as the front approaches. (b) Cold Front. When a cold front passes, the column of air which was previously completely filled with warm air would start to have cold air. With the same argument given above the pressure would start to increase. From the above we deduce that the isobars bend towards a low when a front posses. The isobars in a front show similar behaviour to those in a trough. Winds. We have studied earlier that the winds blow along the isobars. In this case also the winds would blow along the isobars and change direction when a front passes. From the above fig we can see that:(a) If we are moving in the direction same as that of the front the wind is backing i e it changes from 300 deg to 270 deg on passing the cold front and to 240 degree on passing the warm front. (b) If we move in a direction opposite to that of the front then the reverse sequence would taken place and wind would veer. (From Fig. It can be seen that direction varies from 240 to 270 to 300 deg). (c) Whenever crossing a front the aircraft would always drift to the left and a correction to the right should be given. Clouds. Clouds are formed due to ascent of air above the condensation level. In fronts the lifting of warm air by the cold air provides the trigger action. The slope of a warm front is shallower and inclined forward because of which the clouds associated with warm front appear hundreds of miles ahead of the surface front. In case of a cold front, the slope is steeper and inclined backwards due to which clouds are concentrated in a narrow band and appear along with the surface front. The clouds associated with fronts are discussed below:(a) Warm Front. The approach of warm front is marked by appearance of cirrus clouds that are formed 200 300 miles ahead of the front. These are followed by cirrostratus which gradually thickens into altostratus. The altostratus thickens to form nimbostratus and rain starts about 50miles ahead of warm front. The falling precipitation saturates the air below and results in formation of stratus clouds. Occasionally when the rising air is unstable, Cb may develop but the thunderstorms of warm front are not severe.

(b) Cold Front. Due to a steeper slope and a higher speed the cold front rapidly throws warm air up resulting in vertically developed clouds in a narrow band. With the approach of a cold front the medium and high clouds rapidly thicken into nimbostratus and a Cb may develop. The thunderstorm would be severe and may be embedded in clouds, making visual detection difficult. On average the rain associated with cold front extends only till 50 miles after which the clouds thin out to form high clouds that appear in reverse order to that of warm front. Representation. A cold front is represented by a blue line with triangles pointing towards the direction of motion. A warm front is represented by a red line with half circles pointing towards the direction of motion. WEATHER ASSOCIATED WITH WARM FRONT ELEMENT IN ADVANCE AT THE PASSAGE IN THE REAR PRESSURE Steady Fall Fall Arrested Little Change WIND Backing and Increasing Veer and Increase Steady Direction TEMPERATURE Steady Rise Little Change DEW POINT Rise in Precipitation Rise Steady REL HUMIDITY Rise in Precipitation May Rise if not Saturated Little Change CLOUDS Ci, Cs, As, Ns, St Low Clouds Very Few WEATHER Continuous Rain Rain Stops Fair VISIBILITY Good Except in Rain Poor (Fog, Mist) Moderate WEATHER ASSOCIATED WITH COLD FRONT ELEMENT IN ADVANCE AT THE PASSAGE IN THE REAR PRESSURE Fall Sudden Rise Rise Continues WIND Steady Veer Steady TEMPERATURE Steady Fall Little Change DEW POINT Little Change Sudden Fall Little Change REL HUMIDITY May Rise in Rain Remains High Rapid Fall as Rain Stops

CLOUDS St, Sc, Ac, As, Cb Cb, Ns Lifting WEATHER Some Rain Heavy Rain With Thunder Heavy Rain for Short Duration VISIBILITY Moderate to Poor Temporarily Reduces then Improves Very Good