Warm Fronts

Question 1

What is a warm front?

Answer 1

• It is the trailing edge of a cold front
• Warm air cannot push cold air out of the way. It will only move forward as the cold air in front of it moves out of the way/forward itself.
• If a mass of warm air moves against a cold mass of air at all, it will simply rise up over the denser cold air

Question 2

When looking at a weather map, where will the weather be happening in relation to the warm front that is drawn on the map?

Answer 2

The weather will be happening ahead of the red bubble line and will typically end at the line

Question 3

What is different about how the warm air rises at a cold front vs a warm front?

Answer 3

At a cold front, the warm are is often forced to rise quickly and violently, causing intense weather

At a warm front, it rises very slowly over a shallow incline, producing minimal weather

Question 4

If you were standing in the cold air mass, what clouds would you see that may indicate a warm front is coming?

Answer 4

Cirrus, followed by altostratus, followed by nimbostratus and stratus

Question 5

Where does weather happen in relation to the warm front? What kind of weather does a warm front ten to bring?

Answer 5

The weather happens in the cold air side, well ahead of the front itself. Between 250-600NM!

Usually brings a long period of steady precip and cloud/fog/haze and generally shitty conditions

Question 6

What does a warm front with a slope of 1:50 mean?

Answer 6

For every 1NM of heigh, I will travel 150 feet across the ground.

Its a way to figure out at what point you will encounter the weather at a warm or cold front given your current altitude.

Question 7

How many feet in 1 NM?

Answer 7

6080

Question 8

What are the indications of an approaching warm front?

Answer 8

• Temp is cool but rising
• Pressure is falling gradually
• Visibility poor (‘because lots of moisture’ was the great explanation for that)
• Clouds CI, CS, AS, NS, Stratus, sometimes fog. Can have CB and TCU in summer when warm air is unstable and moving fast

Wind is in the south-southeast, dew point is rising

Question 9

What happens when a warm front is settled over us?

Answer 9

• Temp is rising steadily
• Pressure is leveling off
• Visibility is still poor but improving
• Clouds are stratus and NS type when there is precip
• Precip, if any, will be drizzle

Winds veering and dew point stays steady

Question 10

What are the indications that a warm front has just passed?

Answer 10

• Temp slight rise
• Pressure slight rise followed by a fall
• Visibility Fair - haze
• Clouds clearing with scattered SC
• Precip, commonly none or light rain showers

Winds have changed to be front south-southwest and dew point rises then is steady

Question 11

The winds ahead of and behind a warm front are ______ and ______

Answer 11

Before it passes, from the southeast
After it passes, from the southwest