Storms Enter California

By Scott Lindstrom • 6 January 2016

GOES-15 Water Vapor (6.5 µm) infrared Imagery [click to animate]

Water Vapor Imagery, above, from GOES-15, shows a parade of storms that have hit California (now over the intermountain West and the Plains), are hitting California, or will hit California. MIMIC Total Precipitable Water, below, shows the the ribbons of moisture associated with each storm. The storm hitting California on 6 January appears not to access as much moisture as previous systems (although rainfall will still be heavy as the forcing is strong). However, the cellular structures in the water vapor imagery (above) suggest very cold air aloft that will support the development of showers on 7 January. In addition, moisture is pooling north of Hawaii in this animation and that moisture may be drawn into California by the end of the week. Click for an animated gif (100+ Megabytes) (mp4) of the GOES-15 Water Vapor Imagery from 1-7 January, showing the progression of storms into California.

MIMIC Total Precipitable Water for the 72 hours ending 1800 UTC on 6 January [click to animate]

Categories: GOES-15