Chesapeake Bay effect snow in North Carolina
Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images (above) showed a well-defined Chesapeake Bay “streamer” cloud at 0710 UTC or 3:10 AM local time on 01 January 2018. This cloud feature resulted from the flow of unusually-cold air over the relatively warm water of the bay — a process identical to that which produces the more common “lake effect” cloud bands. With the benefit of ample illumination from a Full Moon, the “visible image at night” capability of the Day/Night Band was vividly illustrated (and a VIIRS instrument on the JPSS series of satellites — including the recently-launched NOAA-20 — will provide similar imagery).During the subsequent daylight hours, 1-minute Mesoscale Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (below) showed the Chesapeake Bay streamer cloud moving southward. Note that this cloud produced light snow as far south as Currituck, North Carolina (KOTX) from 14-15 UTC or 10-11 AM local time. It is possible that some light snow also occurred across a portion of the Eastern Shore of Virginia and the Outer Banks of North Carolina, but verification is not possible due to the scarcity of surface observation sites in those areas.