Cold Front

Leading edge of colder air that is replacing warmer air.

As you can see from the picture, the air behind the cold front is significanly cooler than the air ahead of it. It is known that tempertaures can drop fifteen degrees within the first hour of a cold front moving through

-Cold Fronts generally move from the northeast to the southwest.

-Symbolically, a cold front is represented by a solid line with triangles along the front pointing towards the warmer air and in the direction of movement. On colored weather maps, a cold front is drawn with a solid blue line.

Common Characteristics of Cold Fronts

	Before Passing	While Passing	After Passing
Winds	south-southwest	gusty-shifting	west-northwest
Temperature	warm	sudden drop	steadily dropping
Pressure	falling steadily	minimum, then sharp rise	rising steadily
Precipitation	short period of shower	heavy rains, sometimes with hail; thunder and lightning	showers, then clearing
Visibility	fair to poor in haze	poor, followed by improving	lowering

Click Here For Warm Fronts