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Mesoscale bands of snowfall in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images, with hourly precipitation type plotted in yellow [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images, with hourly precipitation type plotted in yellow [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images (above) showed a cutoff low that was moving slowly eastward across eastern New Mexico and the Oklahoma/Texas Panhandle on 28 November – 29 November 2020. This system was helping to produce rain and snow across parts of that region — and some elongated convective elements were evident across the OK/TX Panhandles. Snowfall totals included 2.5 inches in New Mexico and 3.0 inches in Texas, with 4.8 inches at Felt, Oklahoma (NOHRSC).

On the following day, a few north-to-south oriented mesoscale bands of snow cover were evident on GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) images (below). Since snow is a strong absorber of radiation at the 1.61 µm wavelength, it appeared as darker shades of black on those images. Swaths of lighter snow cover melted rather quickly during the day.

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

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

Categories: GOES-16, Winter weather