Day 6: Frontal Passage

Posted by pmarsh on 6 Jan 2010 | Comments Off

Well, the arctic surge is certainly on its way southward.  The radar image below  captures the first cold front as it moved into the Oklahoma City metro.  The higher reflectivity values (brighter colors; in this case the blues and green) are associated with the density gradient across the cold front.  In other words, these brighter colors are the result of the cold, dense air to the north of the front being advected southward, into the northward advecting warm, (relatively) buoyant air south of the front.

Below is the same image as above, except I’ve “drawn” the front in blue, along with the wind directions north and south of the front.

Note:  I would post a more in-depth explanation of the radar image, however, we lost power about 40 minutes ago and I’m working via a laptop and cell-phone internet.  Losing power when the temperature is supposed to go down to single digits doesn’t seem like a good thing…