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Ice accrual from freezing rain/drizzle in the Northeast US

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

A large central/eastern US winter storm impacted much of the Northeast with rain, snow, freezing rain/drizzle and strong winds on 20 January 2019 (surface analyses) — and a post-storm comparison of GOES-16 (GOES-East)  “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) images on 22 January (above) revealed a dark 1.61 µm signature (often indicative of significant ice accrual) in parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Since snow and ice are effective absorbers of radiation at the 1.61 µm wavelength — with ice absorbing even more strongly — those features appear as darker shades of gray in the Snow/Ice imagery.

A closer view using NOAA-20 VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) images at 1708 UTC is shown below (note: the NOAA-20 VIIRS image is incorrectly labeled as Suomi NPP). Ice accrued in thicknesses up to 0.60 inch at Meridan in central Connecticut and 0.40 inch at Newburgh in far eastern New York.

NOAA-20 VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Near-Infrared "Snow/Ice" (1.61 µm) images [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) images [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-16, NOAA-20, VIIRS, Winter weather