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Hurricane Dorian off the coasts of South Carolina and North Carolina

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed Hurricane Dorian off the coast of South Carolina from 1116-1900 UTC on 05 September 2019. During this period, Dorian weakened from a Category 3 to a Category 2 hurricane — a plot of deep-layer wind shear from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site (below) showed that the storm was moving into an environment of increasingly unfavorable shear.

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images, with contours of deep-layer wind shear at 19 UTC [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images, with an overlay of deep-layer wind shear at 19 UTC [click to enlarge]

Dorian’s eye passed directly over EDISTO Buoy 41004; a combined plot of wind speed, wind gust, and air pressure is shown below.  Across the region, peak wind gusts were 98 mph and rainfall was as high as 10.19 inches.

Plot of wind speed (blue), wind gust (red) and air pressure (green) for Buoy 41004

Plot of wind speed (blue), wind gust (red) and air pressure (green) for Buoy 41004

A sequence of VIIRS True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images from Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 as viewed using RealEarth are shown below.

VIIRS True Color RGB and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images from Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 [click to enlarge]

VIIRS True Color RGB and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images from Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 [click to enlarge]

===== 06 September Update =====

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

Dorian made landfall on Cape Hatteras, North Carolina around 1235 UTC on 06 September — 1-minute GOES-16 Infrared images (above) showed the eye moving northeastward across the Outer Banks. Peak wind gusts were as high as 110 mph, with rainfall amounts up to 13.74″.

Categories: GOES-16, NOAA-20, RealEarth, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Satellite winds, Suomi NPP, Tropical cyclones, VIIRS