Problems and solutions for drawing fronts objectively

Abstract

A recent requirement charged to the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) is to produce significant weather charts for aviation users with, among other forecast products, forecast locations of significant fronts. To increase forecaster productivity, the AWC decided to evaluate the possibility that fronts should be first drawn objectively. Hewson (1998) describes the basic technique which uses a variation on the Renard & Clarke (1965) frontal locator function to find the fronts. The AWC had to overcome many problems in implementing Hewson's techniques. This paper illuminates the problems and describes the AWC solutions. As a result of the AWC's success, objective frontal analyses and forecasts are now a reality, and the productivity of forecasters increased.