FAA Sport Pilot Airplane (SPA)WeatherMedium
A pilot receives a briefing that a warm front is approaching the departure airport from the southwest. What weather should the pilot expect prior to the front's passage?
- AGradually lowering ceilings, increasing cloud layers, and steady precipitation with poor visibility
- BBrief, intense showers followed by rapid clearing and cooler air
- CClear skies with strong, gusty, shifting winds
- DSudden temperature drop with towering cumulonimbus clouds
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. Gradually lowering ceilings, increasing cloud layers, and steady precipitation with poor visibility
Warm fronts move slowly and produce a gradual sequence of clouds (cirrus to stratus) lowering in ceiling, with steady precipitation and reduced visibility well ahead of the surface front passage.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. Describes a fast-moving cold front, not a warm front.
- C. More typical of frontal passage clearing, not the approach of a warm front.
- D. Describes cold front thunderstorm activity, not warm front characteristics.
Warm Front Weather
A warm front is the leading edge of a warm air mass overriding cooler air, producing gradual, widespread deterioration in weather ahead of the surface front.
- Slow-moving (10-25 mph typical)
- Stratiform clouds and steady precipitation ahead of the front
- Ceilings and visibility gradually lower, then improve after passage
Memory trick: Warm front = slow, steady soaking rain before it arrives.