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Fronts

Notes:

These air masses do not mix freely. Where they meet is a region of significant weather called a front.

In this simplified model a front started when two of these air masses collide (A)

The spinning of the earth eventually forces the strongest parts of the airmass to circulate around a center (B)

This circulation drives the air masses into the neighboring airmass. In the case of a warm front the warm air passes on top of the cold air. A cold front is the cold air slamming into the warm air in an abrupt transition.

While the TV weatherman only talks about the surface effects of these fronts it is important to keep in mind that these are 3 dimensional phenomena.