 Frontal zones can be distorted by such geographic features as mountains and large bodies of water.A cold front's location is at the leading edge of the temperature drop-off, which in an isotherm analysis shows up as the leading edge of the isotherm gradient, and it normally lies within a sharp surface trough.Cold fronts can move up to twice as fast as warm fronts and produce sharper changes in weather, since cold air is denser than warm air and rapidly lifts the warm air as the cold air moves in.