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Lake effect convection over southern Lake Michigan

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images (above) showed convection which developed just off the Lower Michigan coast in southeastern Lake Michigan — where warmer water temperatures existed — on 17 October 2022. As this convection moved inland across southwestern Lower Michigan and northern Indiana it produced a swath of rainfall and snowfall.

The GOES-16 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB image at 1831 UTC (below) includes cursor readouts of associated Cloud Top Phase and Cloud Top Height derived products at a point near the center of the offshore convection. Qualitative interpretation of RGB color hues can be somewhat difficult or misleading at times — this method of Level 2 derived product display ensures a more accurate analysis of RGB image features. For example, the cloud top at the cursor location shown below exhibited a 10.3 µm infrared brightness temperature of -43.05ºC at a height of 26,766 feet, ensuring Ice as the cloud top phase.

GOES-16 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB image at 1831 UTC, with cursor readouts of associated Cloud Top Phase and Cloud Top Height derived products [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-16, Level 2 Product Readouts, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Winter weather