Valley fog and mountain snow in the Catskills of New York

By Scott Bachmeier • 1 May 2018

As pointed out by NWS Binghamton, valley fog and higher-elevation snow cover was apparent on GOES-16 (GOES-East) Visible imagery in the Catskills of southeastern New York on the morning of 01 May 2018. A closer view comparing GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) images (below) showed the dissipation of the valley fog, followed by the melting of the snow cover in higher terrain (snowfall amounts of up to 3-4 inches fell in the area on 29 April). The Snow/Ice imagery was helpful in discriminating between the brighter valley fog features and the darker snow cover.

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

Terra MODIS True-color image [click to enlarge]

Categories: Fog detection, GOES-16, MODIS, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Terra, Winter weather