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Occluded cyclone in southern Canada

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, upper left), Low-level Water Vapor (7.3 µm, upper right), Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm, lower left) and Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm, lower right) images [click to play animation]

A 4-panel comparison of GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Low-level Water Vapor (7.3 µm), Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) and Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images (above) showed a large occluded cyclone (surface analyses) over northern Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba on 15 July 2018. In the cold sector of the storm, morning temperatures were confined to the 40s F — especially at Churchill, Manitoba where strong easterly winds were blowing off Hudson Bay.

A closer examination of the GOES-16 images (below) revealed the presence of waves over southwestern Manitoba on the Water Vapor imagery — these appeared to vertically-propagating waves which formed due to the interaction of strong boundary layer winds with the topography of that area (some land features rise to 2600 feet). These waves then began breaking and propagating slowly westward late in the animation.

GOES-16 "Red" Visible (0.64 µm, upper left), Low-level Water Vapor (7.3 µm, upper right), Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm, lower left) and Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm, lower right) images [click to play animation]

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, upper left), Low-level Water Vapor (7.3 µm, upper right), Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm, lower left) and Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm, lower right) images [click to play animation]

A NOAA-20 VIIRS True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) image (below) showed numerous smoke plumes from wildfires in southeastern Manitoba and western Ontario, as well as the light cyan color of ice in central and eastern portion of Hudson Bay (ice analysis: northern | southern).

NOAA-20 VIIRS True Color RGB image [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 VIIRS True Color RGB image [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-16, NOAA-20, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, VIIRS