6
votes
Accepted
Why are frontal zones connected to low-pressure systems but not to high-pressure systems?
Not only are fronts associated with (extratropical) lows, but by in large, fronts are extensions of those lows, as shown by the following hand analysis (from the US Storm Prediction Center):
There's ...
- 8,374
5
votes
Are the "polar vortex" and "cut-off lows" over/near the Great Lakes new phenomena?
The polar vortex
The AMS glossary defines the polar vortex as:
A planetary-scale mid- to high-latitude circumpolar cyclonic circulation, extending from the middle troposphere to the stratosphere. The ...
- 14k
2
votes
Accepted
Cloudless sky in synop message?
Yes, in your example, the group should have been omitted. From the WMO Publication No. 306 - Manual On Codes - Volume I.1 - Part A, Section A, FM 12 SYNOP:
12.2.7 Group 8NhCLCMCH
12.2.7.1 This ...
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2
votes
Why are frontal zones connected to low-pressure systems but not to high-pressure systems?
The (relatively) easy answer is that the mechanism that low pressure systems generally form are different than the mechanism that high pressure areas form.
This begs the question "How do low pressure ...
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1
vote
In quasi-geostrophic frontogenesis, what happens if the potential vorticity is negative?
Mathmatically, the Sawyer–Eliassen equation is an second-order partical differential equation of the form:
$$\frac{\partial}{\partial y}\left(A\frac{\partial \psi}{\partial y}+B\frac{\partial\psi}{\...
- 81
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