Ex-hurricane Ophelia over Ireland and the United Kingdom
Meteosat-10 Water Vapor (6.25 µm) images, with hourly surface wind gusts (knots) plotted in red [click to play MP4 animation]
Meteosat-10 Water Vapor (7.35 µm) images, with hourly surface wind gusts (knots) plotted in red [click to play MP4 animation]
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In a toggle between Terra MODIS (overpass time around 1159 UTC) and Aqua MODIS (overpass time around 1345 UTC) true-color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) imagery (above), a somewhat hazy appearance was seen over the Irish Sea on the Terra MODIS image. This was due to an airborne plume of sand from the Sahara Desert (UK Met Office story).In fact, blowing sand was observed about 3 hours later at Isle of Man, from 1520-1620 UTC — during that time period their surface winds gusted to 68 knots (78 mph), and surface visibility was reduced to 2.2 miles (below).