Boundary-layer convergence zones (boundaries) have long been known to be key factors in convection initiation and evolution. An examination of the literature suggests that boundaries such as cold fronts, gust fronts, sea-breeze fronts and drylines have received the largest amount of attention in terms of documenting their kinematic and moisture characteristics for convective weather forecasting applications.
Multiple-Doppler radar and rawinsonde data are used for instance to examine misocyclone characteristics along gust fronts observed during the CaPE experiments in Florida. Observational representativeness of previous numerical simulations of misocyclones were investigated by employing a consistent analysis strategy to 11 gust fronts observed in the same region. The results are shown in Fig. 1.
	In the context of convection initiation we investigated the kinematic and thermodynamic structures of a nonprecipitating cold front (Fig. 2) observed in west-central Kansas on 10 June 2002 during the International H2O project with dropsondes and airborne instrumentation that include Doppler radars, a differential absorption liar, and in-situ sensors. The study revealed strong wind shear instabilities along the cold front leading edge and on top of the cold frontal flow which can be hypothesized to have a major impact on cloud formation.

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Friedrich, K., D. E. Kingsmill, C. Flamant, H. V. Murhey, and R. M. Wakimoto, 2008: Kinematic and moisture characteristics of a nonprecipitating cold front observed during IHOP. Part II: Along-front structures. Mon. Wea. Rev. (accepted)

Friedrich, K., D. E. Kingsmill, C. Flamant, H. V. Murhey, and R. M. Wakimoto, 2008: Kinematic and moisture characteristics of a nonprecipitating cold front observed during IHOP. Part II: Along-front structures. Mon. Wea. Rev., 136, 147-172.

Friedrich, K., D. E. Kingsmill, and C. R. Young, 2005: Misocyclone characteristics along Florida gust fronts during CaPE. Mon. Wea. Rev., 133, 3345-3367.

Friedrich, K., D. E. Kingsmill, and C. Young, 2004: Convection initiation and misocyclone development: Is there a link? In Proc. 22nd Conf. on Severe Local Storms, October 2004, Hyannis, MA, USA.