What front do winter storms usually start at?

Answer 1

Cold fronts produce most of the severe weather most of the time. This is because the cold air undertakes the warm moist air ahead of the front. As this happens the warm air is lifted into the atmosphere causing it to condense and cool quickly creating cumulonimbus clouds, or thunderclouds. The storms that form along the cold front are usually linear in fashion and are responsible for straight line winds, hail, and sometimes even a brief tornado.

That being said, the usual tornado producer/ large hail storms are the discrete supercells that may form ahead of the main line. They are in general extremely rare, and usually form in the great plains " tornado alley", or in the southeast U.S, but can form anywhere given the right setup. The most violent of supercells are usually closest to a lifting warm front out ahead of a cold front with a low pressure to the northwest. For more details, search "supercells" on the web as they are the most violent of severe weather modes.

Answer 2

Yes.

To produce snow, you need two things: moisture and cold.

When air is cooled, its moisture precipitates out, so cold air contains very little moisture.
Warm air, if it passes over water or damp ground, picks up moisture.

To get a lot of snow, the cold air has to contact warm moist air.
For this to happen, one or both of them has to be moving -- usually as a front.

If the cold air is standing still, and a moist warm front approaches, the warm air, being lighter, rides up over the cold air. When the warm air gets cold from the cold air and the high altitude, its moisture drops out in the form of snow, sleet, or rain.
If it is cold enough you get a long steady snow.

If the warm moist air is standing still and a cold front approaches, the heavier cold air plows under the lighter moist air and forces it upward. Since the cold heavy air can move along the ground faster than warm air can, this often produces strong winds. In the summer this causes thunder storms and tornadoes. In the winter it can produce snow storms or blizzards.

Answer 3

Normally cold fronts have the most violent weather when it interacts with warm, humid air but, warm fronts also do produce violent weather there have been a number of supercells that form along a warm front that interacts with cold air and produces hail, high winds and of course tornadoes.

Answer 4

In general, weather fronts are areas where colder air and warmer air meet. Weather there is unsettled, and storms of some kind can often be observed. Whether rain, hail, snow or other atmospheric phenomenon appears depends on the air temperatures of the different air masses, the moisture content and a few other variables.

Answer 5

The Polar Front is the general term for the boundary between Arctic air and milder mid-latitude air in the winter. Winter storms do not always form here though.

Answer 6

sometimes warm fronts cold fronts occluded fronts and stationary fronts

Answer 7

occluded

Answer 8

cold