Ebaldone, Kenneth Ryan C.

Meteorology and Oceanography 1

WEEK 3 TOPIC/STRUCTURES OF DEPRESSIONS

1. DISCUSS WITH THE AID OF A DIAGRAM, THE WEATHER EXPERIECED DURING THE PASSAGE OF AN IDEALIZED
COLD FRONT.

A cold front is defined as the transition zone where a cold air mass is replacing a warmer air mass. Cold
fronts generally move from northwest to southeast. The air behind a cold front is noticeably colder and drier
than the air ahead of it. When a cold front passes through, temperatures can drop more than 15 degrees within
the first hour.

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.
 There is typically a noticeable temperature change from one side of a cold front to the other. In the map of
surface temperatures below, the station east of the front reported a temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit
while a short distance behind the front, the temperature decreased to 38 degrees. An abrupt temperature
change over a short distance is a good indicator that a front is located somewhere in between.

If colder air is replacing warmer air, then the front should be analyzed as a cold front. On the other hand, if
warmer air is replacing cold air, then the front should be analyzed as a warm front. Common characteristics
associated with cold fronts have been listed in the table below.
 2. DISCUSS THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ‘DEPRESSION’.

Depression characteristics

Where isobars are close together the wind is greatest. This is because of a rapid change in air pressure.

 Wind - winds blow anticlockwise in a depression and wind blows along the isobars. You can work out the
wind direction by following the isobars in an anticlockwise direction.
 Wet - where warm air meets cold air, the warm air is pushed upwards where it cools, condenses and
precipitates (usually as rain). A front is a band of cloud and clouds bring rain.
 Temperature - in general, the warm sector behind the warm front brings warmer temperatures and
the cold sector behind the cold front brings cooler temperatures.

As a depression passes over the following changes occur.

The table below explains the changes as a depression passes over.

A depression, as its name implies, is a region of low barometric pressure and appears on the synoptic
chart as a set of closed curved isobars with winds circulating anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere,
clockwise in the southern hemisphere. The warm and cold fronts associated with depressions bring with them
characteristically unsettled weather. Depressions vary from between 200 and 2,000 miles in diameter; they may
be deep when pressure at their centre is very low and the isobars are tightly packed, or shallow when less well
developed.

A depression develops like the propagation of a wave in water. Initially, a uniform boundary or front
exists between cold air pushing southwards and warm air pushing northwards. A wave-shaped distortion may
appear on the front, and a small low-pressure centre develops at the crest of the wave. In the immediately
surrounding area, the pressure begins to fall. A disturbance of this kind is called a wave depression. As the
“wave” develops, a warm sector of air forms, bounded by the warm and cold fronts, which begins to tie over the
engulfing cold air. Both the warm and cold fronts originate from the centre of the depression. On the ground,
sudden changes in the wind direction may be experienced when fronts pass by.

Wave depressions can grow off the tail ends of primary cold fronts. The depression so formed is then called a
secondary depression. New centres may also develop at the point of occlusion within the primary depression.
The secondary system can then become the main system, and the primary occluded front becomes caught up in
the developing circulation, effectively becoming a third front.
4. DISCUSS THE STAGES IN THE LIFE CYCLE OF A POLAR FRONT DEPRESSION.

Life Cycle of a frontal depression. Warm air moves faster than cold and every now and again, it frontal
depression, since as the warm, less dense air pushes into the cold denser air, the pressure falls. The following
sketch shows the life cycle of a depression:
 When the depression is fully developed, the air behind the cold front moves faster than the air in the warm
sector. As a result the warm sector is undercut and lifted off the ground. The front is then said to be occluded.

The air ahead of and behind the occlusion was originally the same but with the movement of the warm sector
and the passage of time, the temperature changes. If the air behind the occluded front is colder than that in
front, the occlusion is called a cold one. If it is the other way around, it is referred to as a warm occlusion.

5. DISCUSS A FAMILY OF DEPRESSIONS.

Family of depression: Before we have considered the formation of a wave-like disturbance, along a small
section of a front. But sometimes with each outbreak of an air mass develops a series of waves along the front
and each waveform its own wavelike disturbance. So from two or three to five depressions can form along a
particular front.

The initial depression is called primary and others are called secondary depression. These secondary depressions
sometimes grow very quickly into intense low with almost the same characteristics as primary low. Primary
along with another or a series of secondary depressions is termed as Family of depression, which is shown as
below figure.
6. DRAWS A DIAGRAM OF A POLAR FRONT, FOR BOTH NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE, SHOWING
ISOBARS, WARMS AND COLD FRONTS, WIND CIRCULATION AND WARM SECTOR.

The way how weather fronts develop around a low-pressure system.

The development of mid latitude cyclones north of the Equator and south of the Equator.