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From The Developers...
Moving into more advanced topics, here we use an animation to show
how precipitation typically develops along the leading edge of a cold front.
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Precipitation Along a Cold Front
by lifting of warm moist air ahead of it
The animation below is a vertical cross section depicting the development of
precipitation ahead of and
along a cold front.
The surging blue region represents
the cold air mass behind the cold front
(solid blue line) and the yellow
areas indicate the warm moist air mass ahead of the front.
[Image: animation depicting precipitation development along a cold front (96K)]
** Press "Reload" to restart the animation **
As the cold air mass propagates, it lifts the warmer less dense
air ahead of it (red arrows).
The air cools as it rises and the moisture condenses to produce
clouds and precipitation ahead of and along the cold front.
In contrast to
lifting along a warm
front, upward motions along a cold front are typically more vigorous,
producing
deeper clouds
and more intense bands of showers and thunderstorms.
However, these bands are often quite narrow (a couple hundred kilometers across)
and move rapidly just ahead of the cold front.
cold fronts
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cyclones
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![[Image: animation depicting precipitation development along a cold front (96K)]](/abt/usrgd/cntnt/guides/gifs/cfprcp.gif){kind=link}