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Fronts and stability

Asked by: 5821 views Commercial Pilot, Flight Instructor, General Aviation, Instrument Rating, Private Pilot, Student Pilot, Weather

Greetings,

My understanding of fronts is that they are air masses cold overtaking a warm (cold front) or a warm overtaking a cold (warm front). I understand why this happens. But how do fronts play a role with stability? Is a warm front more stable or less stable than a cold front, and visa versa. 

thanks,

 

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1 Answers



  1. Skyfox on Jan 03, 2018

    A warm front is more stable than a cold front. Warm air is less dense than colder air and wants to rise above it. When a warm front moves into an area, the warm air slides up over the top of the colder air and wants to stay there. That results in stratus type clouds that form a flat even blanket over the area, sometimes with rain (nimbostratus) and very stable air, although poor visibility. When a cold front moves into an area it pushes underneath the warmer air, forcing it upwards into colder air above which makes the warm, less dense air want to continue to rise. That rise into lower temperature and pressure air causes it to expand, cool, condense, and form rain with towering cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds. That condensation of water vapor into liquid rain also releases the heat that was required to vaporize the water in the first place, called the latent heat of condensation. That heat further drives the vertical rise, which combined with the cold front underneath leads to very unstable air. Fortunately, that instability tends to clean up the air and make good visibility outside of areas of precipitation.

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