This website works best with a newer web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Microsoft Edge. Internet Explorer is not supported by this website.

CIMSS Satellite Blog

MENU

Lake effect clouds (producing light snow) in North Dakota

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-19 (Preliminary/Non-operational) Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images, from 1431-2216 UTC on 25 November [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

GOES-19 (Preliminary/Non-operational) Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images (above) — created using Geo2Grid — displayed “lake effect” clouds (shades of white) streaming southeast off the Missouri River and Lake Sakakawea in northwestern North Dakota on 25 November 2024. Snow cover appeared as shades of green, with bare ground appearing as shades of blue. A smaller cloud plume was seen streaming southeast off Devils Lake (in northeastern North Dakota).

GOES-16 Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” images (below) included 15-minute plots of METAR surface reports — which showed brief periods of light snow at Hazen (KHZE) and Bismaeck (KBIS). Note the cold air — having temperatures in the single digits to teens F — that was flowing across the still-unfrozen reservoirs of the Missouri River (in addition to Devils Lake).

GOES-16 Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” images, with 15-minute METAR surface reports plotted in cyan, from 1416-2231 UTC on 25 November [click to play MP4 animation]

Categories: GOES-16, GOES-19, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Winter weather