Skip to main content
Geosciences LibreTexts

12.7: Bent-Back Fronts and Sting Jets

  • Page ID
    10217
  • \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

    Fronts are intimately tied to mid-latitude cyclones. One approximation of this connection is called the Norwegian cyclone model, where the cold and warm fronts intersect (Figs. 12.30a & 12.31a) or where they pivot around a common low-pressure center (Fig. 12.1). The next chapter discussed extratropical cyclones in more detail.

    Screen Shot 2020-03-07 at 4.40.26 AM.png
    Figure 12.33 Idealized Shapiro-Keyser cyclone model for the N. Hemisphere, showing the warm, cold, occluded, and bent-back fronts. L marks the low-pressure center (i.e., the core of the extratropical cyclone). Associated with some bent-back fronts is a sting jet of fast wind at the Earth’s surface, where the air in this jet has descended from mid-tropospheric altitudes.

    Another model, which has been found to describe some marine cyclones, is called the Shapiro-Keyser cyclone model (Fig. 12.33). In this model, the cold front is roughly perpendicular to, but does not intersect, the warm front.

    Sometimes the warm/occluded front wraps around the low-center. The result is a bent-back front (Fig. 12.33) equatorward of the low. This portion of the front has cold air advancing poleward, and is identified as a weakening cold front.

    Near the end of some bent-back fronts is a curved region of fast mid-tropospheric air that descends to the Earth’s surface causing a destructive windstorm called a sting jet. Its name is motivated by the curved poisonous tail (stinger) of a scorpion.


    This page titled 12.7: Bent-Back Fronts and Sting Jets is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Roland Stull via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.