"Alastair McDonald"
"Waghorn" "......why split fronts appear to be more common in the
British Isles
than in the Pacific Northwest.........."

It sounds to me to be similar to the effect of a breaking wave on the sea
shore.
.......................................


How does that fit with the facts?

Cheers, Alastair.


Er,nice start, but...........no, if I read you right ;-).
Over the ocean basins 'splitting ' can't be induced by orography except in
the sense of it's dependence on the lower stratospheric/upper troposphere
dynamics ultimately related to downstream effects tied to the Rockies (in
the Atlantic basin).However it may well relate to this 'breaking' of Rossby
waves and the effect on maturing baroclinic waves late in their lifecycle,
ie at the end of the stormtrack.
All ideas welcome though.Split fronts are often remarked upon in this
group,and it's interesting there may still be open questions.I can't find a
recent climatology of frontal types tho some work was done in the UK in the
'50s,


--
regards,
David

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