I don't know about you, but I kind of like JB's idea of a cold front warning! But I guess we have so many different weather warnings and alerts nowadays, that we really don't need a new one like that. But it is fun to pretend.
The cold front coming through today is really one of the first good cold fronts of the late summer and early fall time. I'm a relative newcomer to Alabama having only lived here 16+ years, but I've noticed that nature is pretty good about giving us a good cold front in mid to late August or early September as kind of a hint to the fact that Fall is not far away. But we didn't really have one this year. Several weak fronts came into the area and washed out and brought us a bit drier air, but no real good front.
Good front - what does that mean? At this time of year or even for the last month or so, I consider a good front as one that brings dry air and noticably cooler temperatures to central Alabama. In the Wnter and Spring, good cold fronts bring an air mass change with drier, colder air and often these fronts are accompanied by a line of showers or thunderstorms along or just ahead of the boundary between cold-dry air and warm-moist air.
Also, it's important to recognize that a front, whether it be a warm front or a cold front, is not really a thin line as we often see depicted on weather maps. A front is really a transition zone, a boundary, separating two air masses with different characteristics. The front we have today is certainly a good representation of a zone. The wind shift associated with a front is usually along the leading edge of the zone as we see today. I noticed that the wind shifted to the northwest at the Birmingham observation recorded at 7:53 am but there was not a significant dip in the dewpoint reading until 11:53 am. And I suspect we'll see an additional drop in the dewpoint at the 1 pm observation. My readings in Helena have done something similar just offset in time a trifle since I'm south of the Birmingham airport.
So the front marches across Alabama today, and as I look upstream I see lower 39 dewpoints in Missouri. The cool, drier air will be welcome - think I'll try to open up the house tonight and tomorrow - but as is often the case with early season cold fronts, the impact will not last long as temperatures climb back into the 60s for lows and 80s for high over the weekend.
But it really is fun to watch the weather in action like today. Life - and the weather - goes on!
-Brian-
The cold front coming through today is really one of the first good cold fronts of the late summer and early fall time. I'm a relative newcomer to Alabama having only lived here 16+ years, but I've noticed that nature is pretty good about giving us a good cold front in mid to late August or early September as kind of a hint to the fact that Fall is not far away. But we didn't really have one this year. Several weak fronts came into the area and washed out and brought us a bit drier air, but no real good front.
Good front - what does that mean? At this time of year or even for the last month or so, I consider a good front as one that brings dry air and noticably cooler temperatures to central Alabama. In the Wnter and Spring, good cold fronts bring an air mass change with drier, colder air and often these fronts are accompanied by a line of showers or thunderstorms along or just ahead of the boundary between cold-dry air and warm-moist air.
Also, it's important to recognize that a front, whether it be a warm front or a cold front, is not really a thin line as we often see depicted on weather maps. A front is really a transition zone, a boundary, separating two air masses with different characteristics. The front we have today is certainly a good representation of a zone. The wind shift associated with a front is usually along the leading edge of the zone as we see today. I noticed that the wind shifted to the northwest at the Birmingham observation recorded at 7:53 am but there was not a significant dip in the dewpoint reading until 11:53 am. And I suspect we'll see an additional drop in the dewpoint at the 1 pm observation. My readings in Helena have done something similar just offset in time a trifle since I'm south of the Birmingham airport.
So the front marches across Alabama today, and as I look upstream I see lower 39 dewpoints in Missouri. The cool, drier air will be welcome - think I'll try to open up the house tonight and tomorrow - but as is often the case with early season cold fronts, the impact will not last long as temperatures climb back into the 60s for lows and 80s for high over the weekend.
But it really is fun to watch the weather in action like today. Life - and the weather - goes on!
-Brian-
on September 29, 2005, 12:53 pm
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