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Summary of the 02-03 March Nor’Easter

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with plots of hourly wind gusts [click to play MP4 animation]

A strong Nor’easter affected much of northeastern portion of the US during 02 March and 03 March 2018. As noted in the previous blog post, the storm produced very strong winds which led to widespread wind damage and power outages. A GOES-16 (GOES-East) Mesoscale Sector was positioned over the storm on 02 March, and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) provided a detailed view of the center of circulation over the western Atlantic.

A 2-day animation of GOES-16 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images (below) showed the evolution of the storm as it moved from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean (surface analyses). A summary of the peak wind gusts and highest snowfall/rainfall totals can be seen here and here.

GOES-16 Mid-level (6.9 µm) images, with plots of hourly wind gusts [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-16 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images, with plots of hourly wind gusts [click to play MP4 animation]

On 03 March, a vortex was seen to develop in GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, just behind the occluded frontal boundary — about 30 minutes after a burst of stronger northeasterly winds (with speeds as high as 58 knots) was analyzed in that region by the Metop ASCAT instrument.

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with surface fronts and Metop ASCAT surface scatterometer winds [click to play MP4 animation]

A signature of this vortex was also evident in GOES-16 Low-level Water Vapor (7.3 µm) images (below). A toggle between Visible and Water Vapor images at 1605 UTC is available here.

GOES-16 Mid-level (6.9 µm) images, with surface fronts and Metop ASCAT surface scatterometer winds [click to play animation]

GOES-16 Low-level Water Vapor (7.3 µm) images, with surface fronts and Metop ASCAT surface scatterometer winds [click to play MP4 animation]

Finally, a NOAA-20 VIIRS True-color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) image centered over Lake Erie at 1839 UTC on 03 March (below) showed the fresh snow cover left by the storm as it moved across the Great Lakes on 02 March. Snow can be seen across parts of Lower Michigan, southern Ontario, northern Ohio, and far northwestern Pennsylvania. NOAA-20 is the first of the JPSS series of satellites (note: the data are still considered preliminary and non-operational as the instruments and products are being evaluated and tested).

NOAA-20 True-color RGB image, centered of Lake Erie [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 VIIRS True-color RGB image, centered of Lake Erie [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-16, JPSS-1, Metop, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Satellite winds, VIIRS, Winter weather