Cold drop

The cold drop (Spanish:gota fría) is a weather phenomenon often occurring in the Spanish autumn. It is experienced particularly along the western Mediterranean and as such, most frequently affects the east coast of Spain. It is a closed upper-level low which has become completely displaced (cut off) from basic westerly current, and moves independently of that current. Cutoff lows may remain nearly stationary for days, or on occasion may move westward opposite to the prevailing flow aloft (i.e., retrogression). The term is also used to describe the meteorological phenomenon associated. In Spain, it appears when a front of very cold polar air, a jet stream, advances slowly over Western Europe, at high altitude (normally 5–9 km or 3–5.5 mi).