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Rapidly intensifying Hurricane Force low off the US West Coast

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-17 and — beginning at 1801 UTC on 04 January, GOES-18 — Air Mass RGB images, with Moving Maritime (ship) reports plotted in yellow and Fixed Buoy reports plotted in cyan [click to play MP4 animation | animated GIF]

GOES-17 — and GOES-18, beginning at 1801 UTC on 04 January (after GOES-18 became the operational GOES-West satellite) — Air Mass RGB images (above) showed a rapidly-intensifying Hurricane Force low pressure system (surface analyses) over the East Pacific Ocean as it approached the US West Coast during the 03 January – 04 January 2023 period (brief periods with horizontal striping in the earlier GOES-17 images was due to that satellite’s Loop Heat Pipe issue).  As the crude oil tanker POLAR RESOLUTION was moving south-southeastward along the western periphery of the storm, it reported winds as strong as 50-60 knots which were frequently producing blowing spray (1001 UTC Air Mass RGB image) — and Buoy 46006 reported wind gusts of 60 knots (2001 UTC Air Mass RGB image) and wave heights of 41 feet.

With abundant illumination from the Moon (which was in the Waxing Gibbous phase, at 95% of Full), a Suomi-NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) image at 1004 UTC (2:44 AM PST) on 04 January provided an excellent “visible image at night” of the storm. Note the POLAR RESOLUTION report of 55 knot winds with blowing spray (near the western edge of the storm’s cloud shield).

Suomi-NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) image, with Moving Maritime (ship) reports plotted in red and Fixed Buoy reports plotted in cyan [click to enlarge]

GOES-17/GOES-18 True Color RGB (and Nighttime Microphysics RGB) images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (below) displayed the cloud features within the storm’s broad circulation, in addition to a long/narrow cloud band associated with its trailing cold front (which eventually moved south of all the islands of Hawai`i, except the Big Island — as shown in the surface analysis at 0000 UTC on 05 January).

GOES-17/GOES-18 True Color RGB and Nighttime Microphysics RGB images [click to play MP4 animation]

Categories: GOES-17, GOES-18, Marine weather, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Suomi NPP, VIIRS