Lake effect snow in Nevada

By Scott Bachmeier • 21 February 2019

Lake Effect Snow off Pyramid Lake will affect the morning commute for much of Reno-Sparks. Accumulations up 3 inches with locally heavier amount through noon today. Slow down when in the band. #LakeEffect pic.twitter.com/ul2RJRb46F

— NWS Reno (@NWSReno) February 21, 2019

GOES-17 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (above) showed an unusual lake effect snow feature downwind of Pyramid Lake in northwestern Nevada on 21 February 2019 — the surface visibility dropped to 0.5 mile with moderate snow as ihe lake effect cloud moved over Reno-Tahoe International Airport around 16 UTC. Prior to that, the lake effect snow also affected portions of Interstate 80 in the Patrick area.

A morning overpass of the NOAA-19 satellite provided a 1-km resolution Infrared Window (10.8 µm) image of the lake effect cloud at 1254 UTC (below). The coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperature on that image was -46ºC.

NOAA-19 AVHRR Infrared Window (10.8 µm) image at 1254 UTC [click to enlarge]

GOES-17 cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures associated with this feature were as cold as -47ºC just after 15 UTC, which were very close to the tropopause temperature of -47.9ºC on 12 UTC rawinsonde data from Reno (below).

Plot of 12 UTC rawinsonde data from Reno, Nevada [click to enlarge]

Although clouds often prevented a good view of Lake Pyramid, Terra MODIS Sea Surface Temperature values of 42º and 43ºF were sampled on 11 and 16 February (below). With a northerly flow of air having temperatures around 20ºF across such warm water, significant boundary layer instability was generated to aid the growth of the lake effect cloud feature.

Terra MODIS Sea Surface Temperature product on 11 and 16 February [click to enlarge]

Although the view angle from GOES-16 (GOES-East) was rather large, a Land Surface Temperature pixel mapped to the northern portion of the lake had a value of 39.3ºF at 1701 UTC (below).

GOES-16 Land Surface Temperature product at 1701 UTC [click to enlarge]

Categories: AVHRR, GOES-16, GOES-17, MODIS, POES, Terra, Winter weather

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Lake effect snow in Nevada