Front Clouds & Photos
Warm Fronts
The cloud base lowers often as low as 800ft and thickens and visibility gets worse. Sometimes 200ft cloud base
Rain falls as drizzle in the last 200 miles of the warm front The sky can become totally overcast
Cold Fronts travel faster and catch the warm front up.
Air is forced upwards
These clouds may well rise to 60000 ft over the equator, but over Europe may rise to 30000 ft and becoming the thunder cloud known as Cumulonimbus or CB. Severe Turbulence Hailstones the size of golf balls are not uncommon. Thunder & lightening . Windshear is also found here.
Towering Cumulus caused by the cold front catching the warm front up and forcing air upwards. They can become :-
CB Clouds
Looking down on CB Cold Fronts
Microburst
Underneath these clouds terrific downdraughts known as microburst can occur They have caused many accidents. Pilots are advised not to take off or delay landing if a storm is within 20 miles of an airfield. On top horizontal high winds force the anvil shape. Lightening can jump from cloud to cloud. Hailstones can fall under the anvil. Terrific up and downdraughts cause severe turbulence.
You can therefore see that flying in or around these clouds is extremely dangerous without proper training and airframe anti icing equipment. These clouds sometimes drop supercooled water droplets. They are in liquid form but splatter and freeze on hitting the surface of an aircraft. This distorts air flow and the wing can stall. it also can affect control surfaces. You can now see why pilots have to learn about the weather. It is one of your most important preparation duties to ensure the flight can be made safely with regard to the weather.