In the midlatitudes, large-scale precipitation is dominated by fronts that often coincide with extratropical cyclones and atmospheric rivers. These features are largely responsible for high-impact events (e.g., floods) across the entire US, and are generally vital for water management in regions with highly seasonal precipitation (like the Western US). We will present ongoing research done under the DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program that leverages the DOE’s Earth system model (E3SM) using a regionally-refined mesh to investigate the characteristics of large-scale precipitation-inducing phenomena in the midlatitudes of the US. Assessment of the vertical structure of atmospheric fronts, particularly in extratropical cyclones and atmospheric rivers, in E3SM will be emphasized. Frontal characteristics, including frontal slope, coincidence of atmospheric rivers, extratropical cyclones and fronts, tropopause structure, moisture and moisture transport characteristics, and, ultimately, their influence on precipitation are investigated and compared to reanalysis datasets. This work also assesses the sensitivity of E3SM to horizontal resolution and how a regional increase in resolution can improve/degrade frontal representation.