Answer to Question #82125 in Physical geography for Alicia

Question

Why do weather fronts cause a marked drop in temperature, increase in humidity, sudden wind change and a marked pressure rise?

Answer 1

When air masses having different characteristics (warm and cold) approach each other, a tangential gap forms in the zone between them, that is:

1. Increase the horizontal gradients of air temperature, humidity.
2. The pressure field has a hollow or “hidden hollow”.
3. To the broken line, the wind speed has a jump.

Temperature, pressure and air density are related by the equation of state. Air is largely similar to “ideal gas,” for which, according to the equation of state, temperature (expressed in the Kelvin scale) multiplied by density and divided by pressure, is a constant value.

According to Newton's second law (the law of motion), changes in the speed and direction of the wind are due to forces acting in the atmosphere. This is the force of gravity that keeps the layer of air at the earth's surface, the pressure gradient (force directed from the high-pressure area to the low one).