cold front yesterday

[coriolis]

Yesterday I was treated to a real show. I knew that front was approaching. There was a clear blue sky, the air was still and it was about 80 outside. As I was sitting in a meeting that started at 1:00, I saw it coming. It looked like a wall of clouds approaching. It took about an hour from the time it appeared on the horizon till it was overhead. So I estimate it was moving about 15 to 20 mph. Clear blue on one side, dark and menacing on the other. As the edge of the clouds went overhead, the wind suddenly started blowing and it turned decisively colder. Within about 15 minutes it was raining, first light, then it poured for about another 15 minutes, and then it stopped and soon there were breaks in the clouds again with a NW breeze. Classic! Then I went inside and looked at the weather map on TWC. It showed the cold front still about 100 miles to the west! It was a current image too.

Here's my question: When they chart fronts on a map, what is the line supposed to represent? Is it supposed to represent the boundary at the surface, some higher elevation, or what? Maybe they were just imprecise in plotting the map.

I know that for warm fronts, the warm air can over ride the cooler air by hundreds of miles. Again, is the symbol on the map supposed to show the boundary at the surface, or some higher elevation?

As an aside, one of the coolest things to see in a front is the low clouds moving in one direction and the upper clouds moving in a different direction. In a typical cold front, I'll often observe the low clouds moving from the northwest and the upper clouds moving from the south or southwest. Totally awesome!

[MCorder]

Sometimes the winds behind the frontal boundary can be such that they push the weather (your storm) out in front of the actual analyzed plot.

Check out this link for a little more detail:
http://www.tpub.com/content/aerographer/14312/css/14312_119.htm

MCorder
Kodiak Alaska

[coriolis]

wow Great site! Thanks