May 31, 2007 6:42 pm US/Eastern
'Nowcasting' A Back Door Cold Front
by Mish Michaels
(WBZ)
Want to become a weather forecaster? We are here to help. The WBZ Weather team and the Museum of Science in Boston have partnered to get you wise about weather. The project called WeatherWise, supported by a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, includes a permanent weather exhibit at the museum and opportunities to learn to forecast.
As you might imagine, weather forecasting is tricky and complex, but what if you only had to come up with a forecast for the next few hours? Easier right? This type of short term forecast is called a "Nowcast."
In this nowcast lesson, we look at how to track a backdoor cold front.
What is a backdoor cold front? In New England our weather usually travels from west to east. But sometimes when chilly air builds over eastern Canada, a cold front will slide down the Maine coast, traveling from east or northeast - an unusual direction for our weather to move. In other words, it comes in the back door.
That's what happened Wednesday night, pushing back the summer-like warmth and holding temps in the 60s Thursday.
The reason, once the front passes through, cool maritime air camped out over the Atlantic Ocean floods in, adding a spring-time chill to the air. On the other side of the front, the heat is on.
Backdoor cold fronts are unique to the northeastern U.S. and can sometimes drop as far south as Washington D.C.
If you would like to learn more about WBZ's WeatherWise exhibit at Boston's Museum of Science , check the links below.
Tour WeatherWise Become A NowCaster
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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