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Ice motion and growth in southern Lake Michigan

By Scott Bachmeier •

5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (Preliminary/Non-operational) True Color RGB images — created using Geo2Grid (below) displayed ice in southwestern/southern Lake Michigan that was being driven away from the coastlines of Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana by gusty NW winds on 14th January 2025.GOES-16 (GOES-East) Visible images (below) included plots of surface and buoy reports... Read More

GOES-19 (Preliminary/Non-operational) True Color RGB images, from 1511-2156 UTC on 14 January [click to play MP4 animation]

5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (Preliminary/Non-operational) True Color RGB images — created using Geo2Grid (below) displayed ice in southwestern/southern Lake Michigan that was being driven away from the coastlines of Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana by gusty NW winds on 14th January 2025.

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Visible images (below) included plots of surface and buoy reports — which showed wind gusts in the 25-30 knot range at several sites near the Lake Michigan coast.

GOES-16 Visible images with plots of 15-minute METAR surface reports (yellow) and hourly Buoy reports (cyan) [click to play MP4 animation]

A sequence of GOES-19 True Color RGB images during the daytime hours on 13/14/15 January (below) revealed a gradual growth in nearshore ice across southwestern/southern Lake Michigan during that 3-day period, as cold air remained in place across that area.

GOES-19 (Preliminary/Non-operational) True Color RGB images during the daytime hours on 13/14/15 January [click to play MP4 animation]

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Landsat-9 images of the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire burn scars in Los Angeles County, California

By Scott Bachmeier •

30-meter resolution Landsat-9 Natural Color RGB imagery at 1828 UTC on 14th January 2025 — visualized using RealEarth — showed the areal extent of burn scars from the Palisades Fire (above) and the Eaton Fire (below). The burn scars exhibited shades of tan to brown in the RGB images.Around the time of... Read More

Landsat-9 Natural Color RGB image at 1828 UTC on 14th January, with and without labels [click to enlarge]

30-meter resolution Landsat-9 Natural Color RGB imagery at 1828 UTC on 14th January 2025 — visualized using RealEarth — showed the areal extent of burn scars from the Palisades Fire (above) and the Eaton Fire (below). The burn scars exhibited shades of tan to brown in the RGB images.

Around the time of the Landsat-9 imagery, the Palisades Fire had burned 23713 acres (and was 17% contained) — while the Eaton Fire had burned 14117 acres (and was 35% contained).

Landsat-9 Natural Color RGB image at 1828 UTC on 14th January, with and without labels [click to enlarge]

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Blowing snow across parts of eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Red Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) revealed the development of Horizontal Convective Roll (HCR) clouds — a signature often associated with blowing snow — across parts of eastern North Dakota western Minnesota on 12th January 2025. Strong northwesterly winds in the wake of an arctic cold front were gusting to... Read More

GOES-16 Red Visible (0.64 µm) images from 1501-2201 UTC on 12th December, with plots of 15-minute METAR surface reports (cyan). Interstate Highways are plotted in dotted violet. [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Red Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) revealed the development of Horizontal Convective Roll (HCR) clouds — a signature often associated with blowing snow — across parts of eastern North Dakota western Minnesota on 12th January 2025. Strong northwesterly winds in the wake of an arctic cold front were gusting to 25-30 knots at several locations, with blowing snow restricting the surface visibility to 1 mile or less at times.

Blowing Snow RGB images from GOES-19 (Preliminary/Non-operational) — created using Geo2Grid — provided a more detailed view of the widespread HCR clouds (below). Existing snow cover appeared as darker shades of red in the RGB imagery, while bare ground appeared as brighter shades of green; supercooled water droplet clouds appeared as brighter shades of white.

GOES-19 (Preliminary/Non-operational) Blowing Snow RGB images, from 1501-2201 UTC on 12th December [click to play animated GIF]

Note the formation of a mesovortex along the trailing edge of the clouds over far northeastern South Dakota, which later began to dissipate as it moved across southwestern Minnesota. Could interaction of the northwesterly flow with the topography of the Coteau des Prairies (below) have played a role in the development of this mesovortex?

GOES-16 Red Visible (0.64 µm) image at 1801 UTC on 12th December and Topography [click to enlarge]

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Day 4 of the Los Angeles area wildfires

By Scott Bachmeier •

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Fire Temperature RGB images — created using Geo2Grid (above) depicted thermal signatures from several Los Angeles area wildfires from 7th January to 10th January 2025. Most notable were the 2 larger signatures from the initial Palisades Fire (near the coast, which started at 1824 UTC on 7th January) and later the Eaton Fire (farther... Read More

1-minute GOES-18 Fire Temperature RGB images, from 1810 UTC on 7th January to 2359 UTC on 10th January [click to play MP4 animation]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Fire Temperature RGB images — created using Geo2Grid (above) depicted thermal signatures from several Los Angeles area wildfires from 7th January to 10th January 2025. Most notable were the 2 larger signatures from the initial Palisades Fire (near the coast, which started at 1824 UTC on 7th January) and later the Eaton Fire (farther inland, to the northeast) — with a few smaller and more short-lived fire signatures (such as from the Hurst Fire, Sunset Fire and Kenneth Fire) also seen during that 4-day period. The bright yellow pixels highlighted the hottest portion of the fires. Passing clouds occasionally masked or partially obscured the thermal signatures of some fires.

1-minute GOES-18 True Color RGB images from the CSPP GeoSphere site during the daytime hours on 7th-10th January (below) displayed pronounced smoke plumes from the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire during those 4 days (along with lesser smoke plumes from smaller fires).

1-minute GOES-18 True Color RGB images during the daytime hours on 7th-10th January [click to play MP4 animation]

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