According to NOAA’s Great Lakes Surface Environmental Analysis (GLSEA) the Great Lakes were 11.6% ice covered on February 2nd when an arctic air mass was descending southward over the region. The cold air boosted ice coverage to 14.7% on February 3rd, less than half of the average extent (1973-2022)... Read More

A multi-week “parade of storms” over the Pacific Ocean featuring a persistent atmospheric river pattern and numerous winter storms pounding the U.S. west coast has resulted in record snowpack in the Sierra Nevadas with water equivalency at 205% of normal for mid-January in the northern Sierras, 255% central, and... Read More

This post features 2022 highlights from a polar-orbiting perspective, with a focus on U.S. scenes, most acquired by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) flying on the Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20 satellites. Also in 2022: NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) launched the JPSS-2 satellite, renamed NOAA-21. First light imagery... Read More

A classic winter weather pattern developed over the Pacific Ocean this week setting the stage for significant drought relief for the western U.S., along with heavy to excessive coastal rains and mountain snow measured in feet for the Sierras and Rockies. Even though this is a “classic” winter pattern, it... Read More