Cardboard Container Factory Fire in Niagara Falls, NY
GOES-16 Mesoscale Sector-1 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) Imagery, 1440 – 1450 UTC on 20 November 2020 (Click to enlarge)
GOES-16 Mesoscale Sector 1 imagery, in its default position over the metropolitan New York City aviation hub, also views western New York. It was therefore able to view the beginning of a large fire at a cardboard container recycling and manufacturing facility in Niagara Falls (Youtube link) on 20 November 2020. GOES-16 Band 7 shortwave infrared (3.9 µm) imagery, above, first detected the fire hot spot at about 1441 UTC, or 9:41 AM EST (It becomes visually apparent in the imagery at about 1447 UTC). GOES-16 continued to observe the fire until clouds moved into the area around 1600 UTC, or 11 AM EST, as shown in the Fire RGB animation, below, from 1430 – 1630 UTC, and in this visible imagery animation. (Click here to view the Band 7 (3.9 µm) animation from 1430 – 1630)
The warmest GOES-16 Band 7 (3.9 µm) pixel temperature occurred at 1512 UTC: 53.5ºC. Click here to see the image; (here’s the Fire RGB for that time).
GOES-16 Fire RGB, 1430 – 1630 UTC on 20 November 2020 (Click to animate)
Radar observed the fire’s plume (link from 1550 UTC, courtesy Michael Fries, NWS BUF). Thanks also to Michael for alerting us to this event.
A thin veil of clouds had overspread the area by 1737 UTC — but in a time-matched comparison of Shortwave Infrared images from #SuomiNPP and #GOES16, the superior 375-meter spatial resolution of VIIRS imagery still detected a thermal signature of 51.8ºC: https://t.co/CF999nV7HV pic.twitter.com/ndZrAHFID9
— Scott Bachmeier (@CIMSS_Satellite) November 21, 2020