The Occluded Front

An occluded front occurs when a cold front overtakes the warm front in a low pressure storm system or an extra-tropical storm. This usually happens when the storm reaches its peak intensity. In most cases, the low pressure storm system will slowly begin to dissipate once this happens since the warm air source is being cut off from the center of the storm. The low pressure area will then fill and the pressure will slowly rise. Precipitation will diminish and the winds will lessen. This process can take several days. The front is represented on a map with both the triangles of a cold front and the semi-circles of a warm front. They appear on the same side of the front and are always on the side that the front it moving towards. A ìstationary frontî has the triangles on one side and the semi-circles on the other.