- Cold Front:
- Incoming Storm: The barometric pressure falls slowly, then more rapidly as the storm approaches. The wind is south or northeast. Cumulus clouds change to cumulonimbus. There is brief, but heavy, precipitation. The temperature changes little.
- Outgoing Storm: The barometric pressure rises rapidly. The wind is north or northwest and gusty. The clouds begin to break. Storms are intermittent; then there is rapid clearing. The temperature drops rapidly.
- Warm Front:
- Incoming Storm: The barometric pressure falls steadily. The wind blows from the southeast to the northeast and increases in speed. Cirrus clouds change to altostratus to numbostratus. Precipitation falls, and the temperature gradually rises.
- Outgoing Storm: The barometric pressure levels. The wind changes to the south or the northwest. Nimbostratus clouds change to stratocumulus. Precipitation slackens.
- Occluded Front:
- Incoming Storm: The barometric pressure falls steadily. The increasing wind is usually from the east or the northeast. Cirrus clouds change to cirrostratus to altostratus to nimbostratus. The preceipitation is steady, and the temperature slowly rises.
- Outgoing Storm: The barometric pressure rises steadily. The decreasing wind is from the southwest or the north. Stratocumulus clouds change to altocumulus, followed by slow clearing. Precipitation decreases, and the temperature falls slowly.
Other Fronts:
- A backdoor cold front originates in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean and moves to the northeast. High-pressure systems circling clockwise off the coast push cooler marine weather toward land.
- A cold front is the leading edge of cold air.
- A katafront occurs when a high altitude front descends.
- A stationary front travels at almost no speed.
- A warm front is the leading edge of warm air.
- An anafront occurs when a warm front reaches into the high atmosphere.
- An intertropical front occurs in a band near the equator, separating the air masses of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
- An occluded front forms as a cold front overtakes a warm front.
- An upper front is in the upper atmosphere, but does not reach the ground.
