Eastern US winter storm
GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, left) and Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm, right) images, with plots of hourly surface reports [click to play MP4 animation]
Earlier that morning, the Florida Panhandle also received snowfall (text | map), but the lighter accumulations there were insufficient to exhibit a good satellite signature.
In a toggle between Suomi NPP VIIRS true-color and false-color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images from RealEarth (below), the deeper snow cover in Georgia appears as darker shades of cyan.
===== 04 January Update =====
A toggle between Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images at 0620 UTC (1:20 AM Eastern time) on 04 January (above; courtesy of William Straka, CIMSS) showed a nighttime view of the rapidly-intensifying storm when it had an estimated minimum central pressure of 972 hPa or 28.70″. Note the signature of snow cover — extending from southeastern Georgia across eastern portions of South Carolina and North Carolina — which is evident on the “visible image at night” Day/Night Band (made possible by ample illumination from the Moon, which was in the Waning Gibbous phase at 92% of Full). A full-resolution version of the Day/Night Band image is available here.During the following daytime hours, 30-second interval Mesoscale Sector GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (below) showed the evolution of the low pressure center of circulation as it continued to rapidly intensify (surface analyses) off the US East Coast.
Curious about the historical context of this system impacting the East Coast? Interestingly, there was a similar system WPC found that dated back to–oddly enough–January 4, 1989. pic.twitter.com/WcNbJUp2yp
— NWS WPC (@NWSWPC) January 4, 2018
GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with hourly surface weather type plotted in yellow [click to play MP4 animation]
GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with hourly surface wind gusts plotted in yellow [click to play MP4 animation]
(7.3 µm, left), Mid-level (6.9 µm, center) and Upper-level (6.2 µm, right) images [click to play animation]” class=”size-medium” /> GOES-16 Lower-level (7.3 µm, left), Mid-level (6.9 µm, center) and Upper-level (6.2 µm, right) images [click to play animation]
![Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Snow/Ice RGB images, with surface station identifiers plotted in white [click to enlarge]](https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/01/180104_1739utc_suomi_npp_viirs_Visible_SnowIce_RGB_2_anim.gif)
Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Snow/Ice RGB images, with surface station identifiers plotted in white [click to enlarge]