Lecture Notes for Chapter 12 - Air masses and fronts - Survey of Meteorology at Lyndon State College

Chapter 11 - Air masses and fronts Index of Lecture Notes

Air Masses defined: Air Mass source regions Air Mass Classification North America Air Masses cP air masses - lake effect snows mP air mass - west coast mP air mass - east coast mT and cT air masses Fronts - boundaries between air masses Stationary Fronts Cold fronts Cold front cross section Warm Fronts Warm front cross section Warm front weather Occluded front Cold occlusion Warm occlusion Review Questions Homework Sample test questions

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Air Masses defined

Air Masses Defined Large body of air with similar temperature and moisture characteristics in any horizontal direction cover many 1000's of square kilometers Part of weather forecasting is determining air mass characteristics, how they may be modified, and their movement

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Air Mass Source Regions Defined

Air Mass Source Regions Defined Air masses originate in source regions source regions: flat, uniform composition light winds So, where are the good source regions?
ANSWER

Check out the topography of Canada with Google Earth.... Air masses tend to clash and interact in the middle latitudes.

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Air Mass Classification

Air Mass Classification four general categories according to source region (see table) extremely cold cP air is sometimes denoted at cA extremely hot, humid mT air is sometime denoted by mE Air Masses on the move: if an air mass is colder than the surface over which it is moving, "k" is added if an air mass is warmer than the surface over which it is moving, "w" is added Example - a cP air mass moving over the great lakes in December becomes cPk Source Polar Region Land cP (cold, continental dry, stable) (c) Water maritime (m) mP (cool, moist, unstable)

Tropical cT (hot, dry, stable air aloft; unstable surface air mT (warm, moist; usually unstable)

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Airmasses affecting North America

Air Masses of North America Continental Polar/Arctic Stable, cold, dry air masses originating over N. Canada and Alaska eventually plunge southward to interior of U.S. as a shallow dome of high pressure - why??? can reach Gulf of Mexico and Florida - freeze crops Produce lake effect snows as they move over the great lakes. Usually do not move west of Rocky mountains - mountains confine cold air to the east. Upslope precipitation is common east of the rockies as the cP air mass slides to the south. During the summer, cP air mass can bring relief to hot, humid regions.

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The Maritime Polar Air Mass:

mP Air Mass: West Coast: originate over Asia as cP tends to be unstable heavy rains as cool moist air flows over mountains along west coast mP is modified (how???) by time it reaches interior of US, though is milder that cP

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The Martitime Polar air mass - east coast

mP Air Mass: East Coast: not as common as west coast mP colder than west coast mP usually brought onshore by high pressure to the north of us and/or low pressure to the south moving up the coast. QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT: 1. Suppose an mP air mass moving eastward from the Pacific Ocean travels across the United States. Describe all of the modifications that could take place as this air mass moves eastward in winter. In summer. 2. Explain how an anticyclone during autumn can bring record-breaking low temperatures and cP air to the south-eastern states and only several days later very high temperatures and mT air.

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mT and cT air masses - The Dryline

mT Air Mass: largely originates in Gulf of Mexico, western Atlantic affecting eastern 2/3 of country also originates in tropical eastern pacific (SW monsoons in summer) warm, moist, unstable confined to southern US in winter important source of moisture feeding storms all year round cT Air Mass: originates over Mexican Plateau region and desert SW hot, dry, unstable at low levels, stable at upper levels boundary between cT and mT is often called the dryline The dryline is often seen in surface and satellite data and is a favored location for storm initiation: Examples: | static visible satellite image | satellite/surface loop |

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Atmospheric Fronts - Introduction

Atmospheric Fronts Introduction Front boundary, transition zone between two different air masses the two air masses have different densities. Frequently, they are characterized by different temperatures and moisture contents front has horizontal and vertical extent frontal boundary/zone can be 1-100 km wide!! types of synoptic-scale fronts: stationary fronts cold fronts warm fronts occluded fronts

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Stationary Fronts

Stationary Fronts has little/no movement denoted by alternating cold/warm frontal symbols Associated weather: clear, partly cloudy, cloudy, light precip usually nothing severe If the stationary front starts moving north in the example to the right it will become a
ANSWER

If the stationary front starts moving south in the example to the right it will become a
ANSWER

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Cold Front Characteristics

Cold Fronts Zone/boundary between warmer, more moist, unstable air (usually mT) being replaced by colder, drier, more stable air (usually cP). Location of cold front: leading edge of sharp temperature change moisture content (dew point) changes dramatically wind shift (direction and speed) pressure trough (pressure tendency is useful!!!) often cloudy/showers/thunderstorms/sometimes severe What does a vertical cross section through a front look like??

image from Meteorology Today by C. Donald Ahrens 1994 West Publishing Company

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Cold Front-Cross Section

Cold Front-Cross Section warm air ahead of front is lifted up and over can get intense showers/thunderstorms at frontal boundary Cs and Ci clouds are blown ahead of the front by upper level winds cloud base is generally lower Before from Meteorology While Passing Today by D. Ahrens behind the front.... why??? Passing further behind the front, the air southWinds gusty; shifting is quite dry, few clouds southwest steep frontal boundary, slopes Temperature warm sudden drop backward into the cold air frontal speed averages 15-25 falling Pressure minimum, then sharp rise knots steadily temperature and wind profiles increasing: on either side of cold front??? Clouds Ci, Cs and Cb fronts can weaken with time short period frontolysis Precipitation of showers fronts can strengthen with time - frontogenesis fair to poor what processes can lead Visibility in haze to frontogenesis? ANSWER
Dew Point high; remains steady Cb heavy rains, sometimes with hail, thunder and lightning poor, followed by improving sharp drop

After Passing westnorthwest steadily dropping rising steadily Cu showers then clearing good, except in showers lowering

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Warm Fronts

Warm Fronts Zone/boundary between advancing warmer, more moist air (usually mT) and cooler, drier air (usually mP) average speed is about 10 knots What does a vertical cross section through a front look like??

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warm front cross section

Warm Fronts Often associated with "overrunning" frontal passage: Clouds associated with warm fronts frontal surface has a much smaller slope than for cold fronts often produces wide-spread nimbostratus precip near front overrunning in motion:

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warm front cross section

Winds

Before Passing southsoutheast

While Passing

After Passing southsouthwest warmer, then steady

variable steady rise

cool-cold, Temperature slow warming Pressure usually falling

slight rise, leveling followed by off fall clearing with scattered Sc; occasionally Cb in summer

Warm Fronts Typical weather associated with warm frontal passage:

Clouds

in this order: Ci, Cs, As, Ns, St, and fog; occasionally Cb in summer

stratustype

light-tousually moderate none, drizzle or Precipitation rain, snow, sometimes none sleet, or light rain or drizzle showers Visibility Dew Point poor poor, but fair in haze improving steady rise, then steady

steady rise

Overrunning associated with a warm front:

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warm front cross section

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Occluded Fronts

Occluded Fronts (Occlusion) Why do they form ANSWER There are two types of occluded fronts: cold occlusion warm occlusion

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Cold Occlusion

Cold Occlusion cold front "lifts" the warm front up and over the very cold air Associated weather is similar to a warm front as the occluded front approaches once the front has passed, the associated weather is similar to a cold front vertical structure is often difficult to observe

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Warm Occlusion

Warm Occlusion cold air behind cold front is not dense enough to lift cold air ahead of warm front cold front rides up and over the warm front upper-level cold front reached station before surface warm occlusion QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT:
1. Explain why freezing rain more commonly occurs with warm fronts than with cold fronts. 2. Sketch the relative positions of a low and its attendant cold and warm fronts that would be observed in the southern hemisphere. How would the winds shift during the passage of the cold front? 3. Why does the same cold front produce more rain over Kentucky than over western Kansas? 4. Sketch representative soundings (temperature and winds) ahead and behind a cold front 5. Sketch representative soundings (temperature and winds) ahead and behind a warm front 6. You are in Ithaca, NY and observe the wind shifting from East to South accompanied by a sudden rise in both the air temperature and dew point temperature. What type of front passed? 7. If Lake Erie froze over in January, is it still possible to lave lake-effect snows off Lake Erie in February? Why or why not? 8. In winter, cold frontal weather is typically more violent than warm-front weather. Why? Explain why this is not necessarily true in summer. 9. Thunderstorms have formed along a cold front producing rain showers on the cold-air side of the front. Assuming that the air on the cold-air side of the front is initially sub saturated, will the rain showers increase the temperature difference across the front (frontogenesis) or decrease the temperature difference across the front (frontolysis)? Explain your answer.

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Review Questions for Chapter 12 - Air Masses and Fronts - Survey of Meteorology at Lyndon State College

Review Questions for Chapter 12 - Air Masses and Fronts What is an air mass? What and where are good source regions for air masses? How are air masses classified? What are the characteristics of the air masses that commonly affect weather over the U.S.? How can air masses be modified? What are the fundamental, physical processes involved with generating lake effect snows? What is a front? What are the types of fronts? How are they analyzed (what symbol) on a surface weather map? What are the characteristics of each kind of front? What is observed during frontal passage for each kind of front? What kind of weather and clouds are produced by each kind of front? What is "frontogenesis" and "frontolysis"? What is the physical interpretation of the 1000-500 thickness values? Which value can be used to help forecast rain/snow here at LSC?

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Homework for Chapter 12- Air Masses and Fronts - Survey of Meteorology at Lyndon State College

Homework Questions for Chapter 11 - Air Masses and Fronts Consult Syllabus for Due Date
Questions 1-3 will be turned in for a grade.

SHOW ALL WORK , CIRCLE THE CORRECT ANSWER, PLEASE BE NEAT AND STAPLE YOUR HOMEWORK! ALSO, PLEASE USE A SPREADSHEET FOR ALL GRAPHS Follow the Problem solving steps discussed in class
1. Create a vertical cross section of temperature from northern Canada down past the Gulf of Mexico. Label the MT and CP air mass locations in this cross section. Also pencil in the location of the tropopause. Create another cross section of isotahs and isotherms through the polar jet. Label the jet location. 2. One measure of the strength of a front is the magnitude of the temperature difference across the front (delta T). If we assume that the frontal orientation is N-S, as in the case of an eastward moving cold front, the frontal strength (FS) is related to the magnitude of the temperature difference by:

where delta T is the change in temperature over a distance delta X across the front. (a) What are the units of frontal strength? (b) Assume that one observes a cold front oriented N-S. If the temperature at the front is 20 degrees C and decreases to 10 degrees C 100 km to the northwest of the front, what is the frontal strength? Assume that the angle between the isotherms and the front is 45 degrees. EXTRA CREDIT: Find an example of a cold frontal passage in a forecast meteogram for Burlington, VT. Indicate: 1. which model produced the meteogram 2. the time of cold frontal passage on the forecast meteogram. 3. the time when the front was observed to pass through Burlington.

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Sample Test Questions for Chapter 11

____ 1. A good source region for an air mass would be: a. mountains with deep valleys and strong surface winds b. generally flat areas of uniform composition with light surface winds c. hilly with deep valleys and light winds d. generally flat area of uniform composition with strong surface winds ____ 2. Which of the following statements is most plausible? a. In winter, cP source regions have higher temperatures than mT source regions b. In summer, mP source regions have higher temperatures than cT source regions c. In winter, cA source regions have lower temperatures than cP source regions d. In summer, mT source regions have lower temperatures than mP source regions e. They are all equally plausible ____ 3. The greatest contrast in both temperature and moisture will occur along the boundary separating which air masses? a. cP and cT b. mP and mT c. mP and cT d. mT and cP e. cT and mT ____ 4. An air mass is characterized by similar properties of ____ and ____ in any horizontal direction. a. temperature, pressure b. pressure, moisture c. winds, moisture d. temperature, moisture ____ 5. Which air mass would show the most dramatic change in both temperature and moisture content as it moves over a large body of very warm water? a. cT in summer b. cP in winter c. mP in winter d. mT in summer ____ 6. The coldest of all air masses is: a. mT b. mP c. cT d. cF e. cA ____ 7. Cumuliform cloud development would be most likely in which of the following? a. cT air mass moving over a mountain range b. cP air mass moving over warm water c. mT air mass moving over cold land surface d. cT air mass moving over cold water ____ 8. Wintertime mP air masses are less common along the Atlantic coast of North America than along the Pacific coast mainly because: a. the water is colder along the Pacific coast b. the prevailing winds aloft are westerly c. the source region for mP air on the Atlantic coast is western Europe d. the water is warmer along the Atlantic coast e. the land is colder along the Atlantic coast ____ 9. What type of air mass would be responsible for snow showers on the western slopes of the Rockies? a. mT b. cP c. mP d. cA ____ 10. What type of air mass would be responsible for persistent cold, damp weather with drizzle along the east coast of North America? a. mP

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Sample Test Questions for Chapter 11

b. mT c. cP d. cT e. cA ____ 11. The air mass with the highest actual water vapor content is: a. mT b. cT c. mP d. cP ____ 12. The word "frontogenesis" on a weather map would mean that: a. a front is in the process of dissipating b. one front is about to over take another front c. a front is regenerating or strengthening d. severe thunderstorms will form along a front ____ 13. Fronts are associated with a. low pressure b. high pressure ____ 14. A dryline is a. a stalled cold front b. a stalled warm front c. a dew point front d. a boundary marking a strong horizontal change in atmospheric moisture e. both c and d ____ 15. A true cold front on a weather map is always: a. associated with precipitation b. associated with a wind shift c. followed by drier air d. followed by cooler air

____ 16. Occluded fronts may form as: a. a cold front overtakes a warm front b. a warm front overtakes a cold front c. a cold front overtakes a squall line d. overrunning occurs along a warm front

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Great Dryline Example

Great Dryline Example

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Animation

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Animation

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