Detailing Atmospheric Battles Along Weather Fronts

Connecting Weather to the Battlefield

Imagine a field full of militia preparing for battle in an open field while beating wooden drums. There is a brief lull as the silent landscape glistens in sunshine. The two armies clash and warfare breaks out. Rapid gunfire and canons go off and bodies drop. A Victor is eventually declared and the aftermath is surveyed by medical professionals for injuries.

What does this situation have to do with weather? Let's try changing the scene and instead of an open field we have still air. In the distant skies, rumbles of thunder can be heard similar to the beating drums. Ambient temperatures feel warm, but humid until the wind picks up while transporting billowing clouds towards the serene atmosphere. Skies open up with fierce downpours and energetic thunder and lighting. Temperatures rapidly fall as in the case of soldiers dying on a battlefield, but eventually the storms gradually fade and dissipate. Damage to infrastructure is checked thoroughly. According to a page from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, "Norwegian meteorologists developed the concept during the First World War". There you have it, the historical origins of a weather front!

Cold Front Weather Map Symbol

Source: NOAA Weather Prediction Center

Rapid Vengeance Along a Cold Front

Cold fronts most closely resemble the battlefield analogy mentioned previously. Densely chilling air rapidly advances and eventually overcomes warmer temperatures in the vicinity of a cold front. The warmer buoyant air is forced upward over-top the cold front and a line of showers and/or thunderstorms develop that can often times stretch from Canada all the way to the U.S. Gulf Coast. Cold fronts typically trek along the westerly flow aloft, from west to east at a rapid pace. They also tend to stretch southward from a mid-latitude cyclone's center of circulation. A passing cold front can most noticeably be experienced during winter months when temperature contrasts across a region have high variability between locations.

Warm Front Weather Map Symbol

Source: NOAA Weather Prediction Center

Persistent Transitions Along a Warm Front

For a warm front, showers will be light to moderate and tend last longer than with a cold front. Warm fronts usually progress slowly northward in the Northern Hemisphere bringing along warm and moist air from the tropics. Temperatures gradually rise ahead of the warm front before showers develop, if any. Occasionally strong thunderstorms with heavier showers can form as a warm front approaches, having effects more like a cold front. These particular conditions are most readily seen in the middle of summer and can last for several hours at a particular location.

Stationary Front Weather Map Symbol

Source: NOAA Weather Prediction Center

Steady, But Not Calm Along a Stationary Front

Stationary fronts exhibit little to no movement. Persistent showers that develop can last over multiple days over the same area. Common occurrences of stationary fronts develop from several scenarios when two opposing fronts meet, two weather systems in proximity to one another interact or block the other from further progressing, along land-sea coastal interfaces, or within valley mountain passes. Eventually one of these effects will break down and the front will either dissipate or progress forward embedded within another front or weather system.

Surface Analysis Fronts

This is a graphic of the surface analysis weather fronts map from the morning of October 28, 2012 as Hurricane Sandy was heading north off the coast of the Eastern U.S.

Source: NOAA Weather Prediction Center