15.9. Cold Front

The abrupt nose of the cold air in the lowest levels of the atmosphere can act to forcibly lift portions of the warm sector airstreams (Fig. 15.6). This abrupt lift often initiates convective precipitation, which is typically intense. However, due to the generally rapid movement of the front, the heavy precipitation will move through quickly.

Fig. 15.6 Illustration of a cold front cross-section demonstrating precipitation that could occur along its leading edge.

The cross section through a cold front and warm front image was created by Kh1604 and is licensed under the “Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International”