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Standing wave cloud over northeast Minnesota

By Scott Bachmeier •

5-minute GOES-19 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) and Clean Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images with METAR surface reports plotted in cyan, from 1326-2001 UTC on 19 January [click to play MP4 animation]

5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Water Vapor and Infrared images (above) showed the development of a standing wave cloud over northeast Minnesota and Lake Superior on 19 January 2026. This cloud feature was formed by a vertically-propagating internal gravity wave that resulted from the interaction of post-frontal northwesterly surface winds with the topography of the shoreline — the terrain quickly drops from an elevation of about 2000 feet above sea level (over northeastern Minnesota) to about 600 feet above sea level (over Lake Superior) in a very short distance.

The coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperature associated with this standing wave cloud was -53ºC — which roughly corresponded to the tropopause (at an elevation of 6.9 km), as depicted in 1200 UTC rawinsonde data at International Falls (below).

Plot of rawinsonde data from International Falls, Minnesota at 1200 UTC on 19 January [click to enlarge]

Similar standing wave clouds have been documented here on the blog, on 19 January 2022 and 08 January 2019.

Categories: General interpretation, GOES-19