Chapter 10 Extratropical Cyclones Diffluence Dry slot Frontal wave Nor easters Norwegian cyclone model Occluded cyclone Occlusion Open wave Pandhandle hooks Pineapple express Speed divergence Warm sector Key Terms Alberta clippers Anticyclogenesis Anticyclone Baroclinic instability Comma cloud Cut off cyclone Cyclogensis Summary Extratropical cyclones are low pressure systems that cause wet and often windy weather but are very different than tropical cyclones Norwegian meteorologists discovered that extratropical cyclones are associated with fronts and that they have a definite life cycles growing from birth as a frontal wave to maturity as an occluded cyclone to death as a cut off cyclone over the course of several days Extratropical cyclones are born on the downwind side of tall mountain ranges near warm ocean currents and beneath strong jet stream winds Further growth of these storms may occur if the upper tropospheric air is diverging above the cyclone The age and strength of extratropical cyclones can be estimated by looking at satellite pictures and weather maps Strong cyclones often have comma cloud shapes with dry slots and well defined cold and warm fronts the presence of an occluded front indicates a mature but soon dying cyclone The extratropical cyclone is in many ways the complement to the cyclone An extratropical cyclone lives a the clashes of different air masses In contrast an anticyclone is one big often slow fairly calm and stable air mass Even so a high can become a killer for example during the European heat wave in summer 2003
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