Cold low (ger: Kältetief; fr: dépression froide)

Also known as a cold pool, or a polar lows, these terms refer to areas of low pressure and temperature in the middle troposphere. Basically non-frontal depression or cyclone, which is cold with respect to its surroundings at a given level in the atmosphere and marked by more or less concentric isotherms around the core of the low.

Such lows may originate along the arctic coast as a result of strong vertical uplift and adiabatic cooling in occlusions; they do not necessarily influence surface weather conditions, but when they occur over warmer surfaces in middle latitudes, convection develops strongly and the whether turns unsettled and thundery.