cutting-off process

cutting-off process

[′kəd·iŋ ‚ȯf ‚präs·əs]

(meteorology)

A sequence of events by which a warm high or cold low, originally within the westerlies, becomes displaced either poleward (cutoff high) or equatorward (cutoff low) out of the westerly current; this process is evident at very high levels in the atmosphere, and it frequently produces, or is part of the production of, a blocking situation.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.