Frontal Precipitation and Stability

What is frontal precipitiaion?

The source of banded precipitation, typically close together. It needs moisture and upward vertical motion

In relation to a frontal region, where does precipitation typically form?

The warm side because it has intense and narrow upward vertical motion. The cold side has more broad downward vertical motion.

What are the conditions for the most narrow precipitation?

Frontogenesis, static stability, frontal slope, and a strong conveyor belt

What type of front has stronger precipitation?

Cold fronts because they have stronger temperature gradients, larger static stability, steeper frontal slopes and the dry conveyor belts can sharpen moisture gradients (drylines)

What is convective (static) stability?

When a parcel is vertically displaced due to thermally direct circulations. If it’s moved along the isentropes, there’s no returning force.

What is the image for static stability?

What is inertial stability?

It’s the balance between the Coriolis and the PGF. The parcel is displaced horizontally.

What’s the image for inertial stability?

What is symmetric instabitlity?

The balance between momentum and theta-e, these are conditional (CSI)

When is it conditionally symmetrically unstable?

When the slope of theta-e is greater than momentum.

When it is conditionally symmetrically stable?

When the slope of the momentum is greater than the slope of theta-e