A Quick Radar Lesson: Gust Front

As storms approached from the north heading southeast a gust front was noticeable moving southwest. Radar isn’t really supposed to see this, but I’ll tell you why it did.

Rachel and I were at work looking at the radar this evening and noticed something you don’t see every day. As storms approached from the north heading southeast a gust front was noticeable moving southwest. Radar isn’t really supposed to see this, but I’ll tell you why it did.

First you have to understand these storms were tall. That means warm air from the ground was lifted high and chilled. The cold air was more dense than its surroundings and began to drop like a rock! At ground level it’s a cool and dry breeze as the thunderstorm is taking aim

Not many reports of wind damage, so it was probably a moderate gust in the 30-40 mph range. Just an educated guess.

As the cold air traveled along the ground it picked up dust, pollen and bugs. That broken and weak bowed line on the radar screen represents it.

9 thoughts on “A Quick Radar Lesson: Gust Front”

  1. I was watching that last night. Wondering why there is a slight temperature rise as the gust front went by. I understand the brieff spike in pressure. But I thought the surface air temp normally drops as the gust front passes over.

  2. It must have dissipated by the time it got to Stratford as we did not notice anything. We had no change in weather at all yesterday.

  3. That’s really cool, seeing it on the radar like that! I was heading in to the grocery store as the first bore down (it was too hot to deal with shopping earlier in the day), and stood in the parking lot for while watching the storm approach. So much lightning! I was there for the gust. Holy smokes! Boxes from the side of the building blew all around like crazy and I heard the sound of multiple empty cans tumbling across the pavement. It was quite the announcement. A brass section could have done no better, lol!

  4. I was surprised here when I seen a flash of lightning and heart it thunder and and raining pretty good here as we had a watch here in Northern CT. Thanks for explaining though as I was wondering how we were getting these storms.

  5. While here in Norwalk we didn’t get the Tstorms I did notice the gusts of wind about that time. Very interesting.

  6. Geoff: I did think about taking off my CPAP machine last night and I did not know if I should. That might be something that you add to your “mention” list since so many people, nowdays, use them.
    Thanks, I will take it off in the future.

  7. Interesting that it becomes visibly defined when the gust front picks up small particles. Saw some of this in Alabama when really big t-storms collapsed and dumped a microburst across the cotton fields north and west of us. Was never sure what was going on, though. The radar has gotten surprisingly sensitive…I’ve seen the examples of brid migration flocks and clouds of insects, but did not realize that dust and pollen could make airflow visible as well. Is this a NEXRAD system, and do you happen to know which model?

  8. Is this the same type of phenomenon as a Heat Burst. Such as what happened in OK two days ago. Just curious I am a weather nut and love to learn it all.
    Tammi

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