A prescribed burn in far western Arizona’s Havasu National Wildlife Refuge became uncontrolled as northerly winds unexpectedly increased (gusting to 36 mph at RAWS site QHAA3 just north of the fire, and gusting to 28 mph at Needles Airport just west of the fire around 2300 UTC) — and became the Havasu Fire on 19 January 2026.... Read More
1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) True Color RGB images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (below) showed ice that had formed in far southern Lake Michigan (within the nearshore waters of Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana) on 20 January 2026.1-minute GOES-19 Visible images with plots of surface winds and surface air temperatures (below) depicted... Read More
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... Read More
Strong northerly winds created blowing snow and blizzard conditions across parts of eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota — particularly within the Red River Valley — on 17 January 2026. 5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” images (above) showed the development of Horizontal Convective Rolls (HCRs) where winds were channeled down the... Read More
