Lake effect and river effect clouds in northeastern Montana

By Scott Bachmeier • 4 November 2017

GOES-16 “Red”Visible (0.64 µm, top) and Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm, bottom) images, with hourly plots of surface observations [click to play MP4 animation]

As arctic air began to spread eastward across Montana — where the coldest temperature in the US was -12ºF — behind an inverted trough (surface analyses) on 04 November 2017, GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) images (above) revealed bands of “lake effect” (from Fort Peck Lake) and “river effect” (slightly upstream, from the Missouri River) clouds. On the Snow/Ice images, sow cover (and cold ice crystal clouds) appear as darker shades of gray, in contrast to supercooled water droplet clouds which are brighter white. Note that surface air temperatures at Glasgow (KGGW) and Jordan (KJDN) were generally in the 15 to 20ºF range.

A 1-km resolution Aqua (overpass times) MODIS Sea Surface Temperature product (below) indicated that SST values were still 50ºF and warmer (darker shades of green) in parts of Fort Peck Lake. Farther to the west, a deeper portion of the Missouri River exhibited SST values in the mid-40s F (cyan) — this area  was likely the source of the river-effect cloud features. The temperature difference between the surface air and the warmer lake/river water was therefore in the 30-35ºF range.

Aqua MODIS Sea Surface Temperature product [click to enlarge]

Terra MODIS true-color and false-color RGB images [click to enlarge]

Landsat-8 false-color image [click to enlarge]

Categories: Aqua, GOES-16, Landsat, MODIS, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Terra