Increase in Gulf of Mexico water turbidity in the wake of Hurricane Irma
A comparison of Suomi NPP VIIRS true-color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images on 07 September (before Irma) and 11 September (after Irma) revealed a marked increase in turbidity of the shallow Continental Shelf waters off the coast of southern/southwestern Florida and the Florida Keys. Irma moved through that region on 10 September as a Category 3 hurricane — and even though the center of Irma moved northward off/along the west coast of Florida (with a wind gust to 75 mph at Key West) , the strongest winds were recorded along/near the east coast of Florida: wind gusts to 92 mph and 109 mph and 142 mph — stirring up particulates within the shallow Continental Shelf waters.* GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational and are undergoing testing *
Large-scale (CONUS) VIIRS true-color before-Irma and after-Irma images are available here and here. Note that the cloud shield of Irma had expanded as far westward as Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma on 12 September ( GOES-16 true-color images) — in addition to large areas of dense smoke from wildfires in the Pacific Northwest (blog post) which was drifting eastward across the northern US.