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Understanding Fronts and Air Masses

Archived Nerdy Forum (Weather Q&A).
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crikey
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Re: Understanding Fronts and Air Masses

Post by crikey »

Hi Pickle

The best resource for your observations is from this link.......charts
THe ACCESS interactive on BOM's web site

http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/charts/ ... ndex.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You can observe just about every variable you need..

Use the drop down boxes on the page and you can access data for 5 layers of the atmosphere

surface, 850hpascal, 500hpascal, 700 hpascal and 200hpascal

and you can view that for Australia or anywhere in the globe

use drop down menu

Also you can view temp, relative humidity, dew point, wind flow etc

use the drop down boxes to select the combination you would like to see


EG

Australia, surface, gradient winds,
or
Australia , surface, temperature


You can observe the fronts arriving and can see the up coming forecast from this model


Happy weather watching!!
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Meso
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Re: Understanding Fronts and Air Masses

Post by Meso »

Pickle » Wed Jul 18, 2012 4:19 pm wrote:
Pickle wrote:Hey Guys,

I'm trying to learn about the weather at the moment and i am kind of stuck with what areas in Australia have the Warm / Cool air in the creation of front. I'm aware of high and low pressure systems but I want to be able to look at a map and point out where i think its possible for fronts to develop, or even why they developed there in the first place. Are there any step by step tutorials (other than the BOM one) that I can go through and see what influences troughs and fronts?

Even better is there any software put there that can show me where winds are blowing and where warm and cold air is residing / moving? I get a better understanding when I can see and mess around with things :)

Cheers :D
Pickle...if I'm understanding your question correctly then a front is simply the leading edge of an air mass - so, a cold front is just the leading edge of a low pressure system. You can pick them quite easily on a synoptic chart, they are the curved lines with arrows along them. Most of the Victorian fronts originate from the southern ocean / antarctic.
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