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Leeside cold frontal gravity wave across the central and southern Plains

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images, with plots of hourly surface wind barbs and gusts [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images, with plots of hourly surface wind barbs and gusts [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) (above) and Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images (below) displayed a well defined leeside cold frontal gravity wave (reference) as it began to propagate southward from Colorado/Kansas late in the day on 11 October 2020. A bore structure eventually developed near the leading edge of the cold frontal gravity wave as it continued moving south over New Mexico/Texas/Oklahoma during the subsequent overnight hours.

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

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

As the surface cold front moved southward across the drought-impacted plains of eastern Colorado, 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and CIMSS Natural Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (below) revealed the hazy signature of blowing dust lofted by post-frontal northerly winds with peak gusts in the 60-80 knot range. Blowing dust reduced the surface visibility to 1-2 miles at several reporting stations, falling to near zero at some locations (causing a multi-vehicle accident along Interstate 70 in Kansas).

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and CIMSS Natural Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and CIMSS Natural Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 True Color images created using Geo2Grid (below) provided a clearer view of the blowing dust along and immediately behind the cold front across the Colorado/Kansas border region.

GOES-16 True Color images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 True Color images [click to play animation | MP4]

Categories: Air quality, GOES-16, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images