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Blowing dust across New Mexico. Texas and Oklahoma

By Scott Bachmeier •

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

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

GOES-16 (GOES-East) True Color RGB images created using Geo2Grid (above) revealed multiple plumes of blowing dust — which had their sources in drought-stricken portions of New Mexico and the Texas/Oklahoma Panhandles — moving across Texas in the wake of a cold frontal passage on 30 January 2021. Other features of interest included an undular bore that developed ahead of the advancing cold front in Texas, and smaller plumes of blowing dust that originated from a cluster of dry lake beds in central New Mexico late in the day. Surface wind gusts in the 50-60 knot range were seen, and visibility was restricted to less than 1 mile at some locations.

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 Dust RGB and Split Window Difference (10.3 µm – 12.3 µm) images (below) showed that the dust signatures (brighter shades of magenta in the Dust RGB images, and brighter shades of yellow in the SWD images) diminished as the winds began to subside during the late afternoon hours.

GOES-16 Dust RGB and Split Window Difference (10.3 µm – 12.3 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Dust RGB and Split Window Difference (10.3 µm – 12.3 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

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