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Tropical Storm Fay makes landfall in New Jersey

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 Tropical Storm Fay as it moved northward and made landfall just northeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey (station identifier KACY) around 2100 UTC on 10 July 2020. The exposed low-level center was completely devoid of deep convection.

GOES-16 Visible images with plots of Derived Motion Winds (below) revealed a few wind targets with speeds of 50 knots or higher (red barbs), but those were located well east/northeast of the storm center.

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with plots of Derived Motion Winds [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with plots of Derived Motion Winds [click to play animation | MP4]

In a sequence of GOES-16 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) and Visible images (below), it could be seen that a tongue of dry air was wrapping into the southern and eastern portion of the circulation of Fay, moving directly over the low-level center (1201 UTC | 1501 UTC | 1801 UTC).

GOES-16 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

When Fay formed on the previous day, a Sea Surface Temperature analysis from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site (below) showed that its center was located over the warm water of the Gulf Stream — but as it moved northward it quickly colder waters around 25ºC off the Delmarva Peninsula and New Jersey coasts.

Sea Surface Temperature analysis [click to enlarge]

Sea Surface Temperature analysis [click to enlarge]

Fay was the earliest-forming 6th (F-named) storm on record for the Atlantic Basin — and was the first tropical cyclone to make landfall in New Jersey since Irene in 2011.

Categories: GOES-16, Satellite winds, Tropical cyclones