From the Greek kata—down—sinking, as in a katabatic wind. The term is also used to describe the sinking of air in the warm sector of a depression at a cold or a warm kata-front, bringing about a large-scale inversion of temperature at the fronts, which are fairly inactive. At a kata-warm front, cloud development is limited to cirrus and high stratus, and precipitation is restricted to light rain; at a kata-cold front strato-cumulus is common, and precipitation is similarly moderate.