Table of Contents
What happens when warm and cold fronts collide?
When a warm air mass meets a cold air mass, the warm air rises since it is lighter. At high altitude it cools, and the water vapor it contains condenses. This configuration, called a cold front, gives rise to cumulonimbus clouds, often associated with heavy precipitation and storms.
What happens when a cold front meets a cold front?
At an occluded front, the cold air mass from the cold front meets the cool air that was ahead of the warm front. The warm air rises as these air masses come together. Occluded fronts usually form around areas of low atmospheric pressure.
What generally happens at any front?
A front is a weather system that is the boundary separating two different types of air. One type of air is usually denser than the other, with different temperatures and different levels of humidity. This clashing of air types causes weather: rain, snow, cold days, hot days, and windy days.
What is formed when two air masses collide and the fronts become distorted?
As air masses collide, the boundary between the fronts sometimes becomes distorted by surface features such as mountains or winds. When this happens, bends can happen along the front, and the air begins to swirl. What are cyclones? They are a swirling center of low air pressure.
What happens when two wind fronts converge?
In a warm front, a warm air mass moves into a cold air mass. Convergence: When two air masses of the same temperature collide and neither is willing to go back down, the only way to go is up. As the name implies, the two winds converge and rise together in an updraft that often leads to cloud formation.
What does it mean when a cold front overtakes a warm front?
Because cold fronts move faster, the cold front is likely to overtake the warm front. This is known as an occluded front. At an occluded front, the cold air mass from the cold front meets the cool air that was ahead of the warm front.
How does weather work when air masses collide?
How Weather Works. The airflow loses much of its moisture in climbing the windward side. Many mountain ranges virtually squeeze incoming winds like a sponge and, as a result, their leeward sides are home to dry wastes and deserts. Frontal wedging: When a warm air mass and a cold air mass collide, you get a front.
What happens to the weather when a front passes?
Wind changes direction as the front passes and the temperature either warms or cools. After the front passes, the sky is usually clearer, and the air is drier. On a weather map, shown to the left, an occluded front looks like a purple line with alternating triangles and semicircles pointing in the direction that the front is moving.
How is an occluded front represented on a weather map?
An occluded front is represented on a weather map by a purple line with alternating triangles and semicircles. Sometimes a cold front follows right behind a warm front. A warm air mass pushes into a colder air mass (the warm front), and then another cold air mass pushes into the warm air mass (the cold front).