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Snowfall across Virginia and North Carolina

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images, with plots of hourly surface weather type [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images, with plots of hourly surface weather type [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images with plots of hourly surface weather type (above) showed the broad areal coverage of precipitation across Virginia and North Carolina during the nighttime and morning hours on 28 January 2021. Storm total snowfall and peak wind gusts associated with this event are listed here. Note that snow was even observed along the outer banks of North Carolina (although accumulations there were minimal).

After sunrise, the resulting northwest-to-southeast oriented swath of snow cover was revealed on GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Day Snow-Fog RGB (snow = darker shades of red) and Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB (snow=brighter shades of green) images (below).

GOES-16 "Red" Visible (0.64 µm), Day Snow-Fog RGB and Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Day Snow-Fog RGB and Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

A toggle between Suomi NPP VIIRS True Color and False Color images at 1732 UTC is shown below. Snow cover appears as shades of cyan in the False Color image.

Suomi NPP VIIRS True Color and False Color images at 1732 UTC [click to enlarge]

Suomi NPP VIIRS True Color and False Color images at 1732 UTC [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-16, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Suomi NPP, VIIRS, Winter weather