Backdoor cold front season is here, what’s the deal?
Each spring we emerge from a long cold winter with aspirations of 70 degree temperatures, a cool breeze and plenty of sun. It rarely works out that way. Whether it be an upper level low, a stalled cold front, or a backdoor frontal boundary there are plenty of meteorological events that could be to blame for a colder and damp spring in this area. The fact of the matter is, our location during a transition season (fall, spring) is a difficult place to be. The changing and morphing wavelengths of the mid and upper level ridges and troughs mean the potential for cutoff lows, and the colder ocean waters this time of year especially will wreak havoc on any warmup.
This time around, we have a significant low pressure system moving through the Central United States. Meteorology tells us that a warm front should be surging north from the Mid Atlantic states into New England as this low pressure moves towards the Great Lakes, with southerly winds ramping up warm air south of the warm front. But where is the warm front, and why hasn’t it made progress north? The answer lies in the setup both aloft and at the surface, and it leads to the development of a backdoor front which pushed the warm air back to our south. While maybe not a classic backdoor cold front, which often sweeps out very warm air and brings low clouds and fog with it, the warm front at the end of this week is stuck well back to our south as cold, marine air is entrenched over New England.
An illustration of a backdoor cold front, showing the colder marine air moving southwest from New England.