Weather Word Wednesday: Advection

QUAD CITIES, Iowa/Ill. (KWQC) - This week we open up the weather glossary to the word advection, and it’s actually something we experience often.

The definition from NOAA is “the horizontal transport of air or atmospheric properties. Commonly used with temperatures, i.e. “warm air advection,” or moisture, i.e. “moisture advection.”

Essentially advection is what happens when a cold front or warm front pass through.

Behind a cold front, colder air replaces warmer. In other words, colder air is advected into the warmer air mass.

The opposite happens with a warm front; the warmer air advects into the colder air mass.

This is exactly what happened on October 24 into October 25.

Temperatures on October 24 were in the 70s, but quickly dropped to the 40s and 50s as the front moved through. That led to temperatures in the 40s all day Tuesday.

Moisture advection is also a term in meteorology. This happens a lot during when warm fronts move through; the warmer air brings more moisture. That can sometimes lead to fog, especially during the winter months when warmer, moist air moves over the cold snow pack.

Previous Weather Word Wednesday segments on Quad Cities Today at 11:

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