Warm Front - Development

Development

See also: Air mass

Air masses are large bodies of air with similar properties of temperature and humidity that form over source regions, and the warm air masses behind warm fronts are not only warmer but higher in humidity than the colder air preceding them. Because of a warm air mass’s higher temperature and thus lesser density, mixing between the two air masses is unlikely. Being lighter, the warm air mass is unable to displace the cooler air mass and instead is forced upward along the upper boundary of the colder air in a process known as overrunning. The boundary between the two air masses has a gradual slope of 130 and lifting is slow but persistent. As the air mass rises into regions of lower pressure, it expands and cools. As it cools, water vapor condenses and forms extensive cloud coverage. The first clouds to form along the sloping surface of the cold air are high cirrus, which thicken to cirrostratus and altostratus. Once the clouds have thickened to 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) from the earth’s surface, rain can begin to fall from the heavy nimbostratus cloud.

Read more about this topic:  Warm Front

Famous quotes containing the word development:

    “There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.”
    —John Emerich Edward Dalberg, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902)

    “Dissonance between family and school, therefore, is not only inevitable in a changing society; it also helps to make children more malleable and responsive to a changing world. By the same token, one could say that absolute homogeneity between family and school would reflect a static, authoritarian society and discourage creative, adaptive development in children.”
    —Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)

    “To be sure, we have inherited abilities, but our development we owe to thousands of influences coming from the world around us from which we appropriate what we can and what is suitable to us.”
    —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)