Weather front

A weather front is a boundary separating air masses for which several characteristics differ, such as air density, wind, temperature, and humidity. Disturbed and unstable weather due to these differences often arises along the boundary. For instance, cold fronts can bring bands of thunderstorms and cumulonimbus precipitation or be preceded by squall lines, while warm fronts are usually preceded by stratiform precipitation and fog. In summer, subtler humidity gradients known as dry lines can trigger severe weather. Some fronts produce no precipitation and little cloudiness, although there is invariably a wind shift.

Cold fronts generally move from west to east, whereas warm fronts move poleward, although any direction is possible. Occluded fronts are a hybrid merge of the two, and stationary fronts are stalled in their motion. Cold fronts and cold occlusions move faster than warm fronts and warm occlusions because the dense air behind them can lift as well as push the warmer air. Mountains and bodies of water can affect the movement and properties of fronts, other than atmospheric conditions. When the density contrast has diminished between the air masses, for instance after flowing out over a uniformly warm ocean, the front can degenerate into a mere line which separates regions of differing wind velocity known as a shear line. This is most common over the open ocean.

The Bergeron classification is the most widely accepted form of air mass classification. Air mass classifications are indicated by three letters: Fronts separate air masses of different types or origins, and are located along troughs of lower pressure.

A surface weather analysis is a special type of weather map which provides a top view of weather elements over a geographical area at a specified time based on information from ground-based weather stations. Weather maps are created by detecting, plotting and tracing the values of relevant quantities such as sea-level pressure, temperature, and cloud cover onto a geographical map to help find synoptic scale features such as weather fronts. Surface weather analyses have special symbols which show frontal systems, cloud cover, precipitation, or other important information. For example, an H may represent a high pressure area, implying fair or clear weather. An L on the other hand may represent low pressure, which frequently accompanies precipitation and storms. Low pressure also creates surface winds deriving from high pressure zones and vice versa. Various symbols are used not just for frontal zones and other surface boundaries on weather maps, but also to depict the present weather at various locations on the weather map. In addition, areas of precipitation help determine the frontal type and location.

There are two different meanings used within meteorology to describe weather around a frontal zone. The term "anafront" describes boundaries which show instability, meaning air rises rapidly along and over the boundary to cause significant weather changes and heavy precipitation. A "katafront" is weaker, bringing smaller changes in temperature and moisture, as well as limited rainfall.

A cold front is located along and on the bounds of the warm side of a tightly packed temperature gradient. On surface analysis charts, this temperature gradient is visible in isotherms and can sometimes also be identified using isobars since cold fronts often align with a surface trough. On weather maps, the surface position of the cold front is marked by a blue line with triangles pointing in the direction where cold air travels and it is placed at the leading edge of the cooler air mass. Cold fronts often bring rain, and sometimes heavy thunderstorms as well. Cold fronts can produce sharper and more intense changes in weather and move at a rate that is up to twice as fast as warm fronts, since cold air is more dense than warm air, lifting as well as pushing the warm air preceding the boundary. The lifting motion often creates a narrow line of showers and thunderstorms if enough humidity is present as the lifted moist warm air condenses. The concept of colder, dense air "wedging" under the less dense warmer air is too simplistic, as the upward motion is really part of a maintenance process for geostrophic balance on the rotating Earth in response to frontogenesis.

Warm fronts are at the leading edge of a homogeneous advancing warm air mass, which is located on the equatorward edge of the gradient in isotherms, and lie within broader troughs of low pressure than cold fronts. A warm front moves more slowly than the cold front which usually follows because cold air is denser and harder to lift from the Earth's surface.

This also forces temperature differences across warm fronts to be broader in scale. Clouds appearing ahead of the warm front are mostly stratiform, and rainfall more gradually increases as the front approaches. Fog can also occur preceding a warm frontal passage. Clearing and warming is usually rapid after frontal passage. If the warm air mass is unstable, thunderstorms may be embedded among the stratiform clouds ahead of the front, and after frontal passage thundershowers may still continue. On weather maps, the surface location of a warm front is marked with a red line of semicircles pointing in the direction the air mass is travelling.