Numerical simulations of the evolution of a cold front and its precipitation

Abstract

The evolution of several local maxima of frontal intensity, defined in terms of temperature gradient, were related to the combination of local maxima of convergence and deformation effects in different locations along the cold front. The genesis of negative relative vorticity along the inverted cold front over the lee of the US Rockies was found to be related to the effect of solenoidal forcing. The negative solenoidal forcing here was formed by the orographic pressure gradient perpendicular to the strong temperature gradient. The movement of the local maximum of mesoscale low-level convergence along the cold front moving from the southern portion of the front to north drove the major frontal intensity from south to north in terms of frontogenesis and cyclogenesis. -from Author