#2379 "Singleton Warm Front Sunrise"

Singleton Lake was still in the cool air mass ahead of the warm front. The warm conveyor belt was surging northeastward and riding above this shallow wedge of cool air. The clouds were moving northward behind the leading deformation zone as I enjoyed my morning coffee. This confirmed that the col in the huge deformation zone was further to the south. The portion of the storm above Singleton was the cyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt. Singleton was going to get some warm frontal rain with this one. I included some virga on the eastern horizon.

The cyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt may be less stable than the anticyclonic companion but the stability of the warm front was still sufficient for gravity waves. An artist can never be wrong if one paints what they see. Nature easily does all of the math and is always right. The gravity waves I included in this sunrise all fit the conceptual model of the relative flow around the cyclonic swirl. The wind does indeed back with height. The brighter and fully illuminated clouds were higher that the grey clouds. Even so it can be a struggle to envision the wind field using the conceptual model.

Here are the steps that you might follow.

Knowing the direction that you are looking and relative to your location:

• Which direction is the storm moving from? Guess from the southwest or consult the orientation of the jet stream. Answer: Southwest. 
• Where is the highest level deformation zone of the warm conveyor belt? Answer: Well to the east. 
• Which way are the cloud elements moving along the deformation zone? Answer: Moving northward. 
• If the warm conveyor belt is above you, do the winds back or veer with height? Answer: Back. 
• Instead of the previous question, use your right hand and point the fingers in the direction the cloud is moving in the free atmosphere. Is your right thumb point up or down? Answer. Up which denotes a positive cyclonic swirl. 

If you apply this to the conceptual model, this painting is under the cyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt with the winds backing with height. The warm frontal rain was not going to miss Singleton.

For this and much more art, click on Pixels. Thank you.

This is an artistic example of the Science Tuesday post which can be found at Weather Watching Guide for Everyone….