A tornado moved through the Atlanta, Georgia metro area (this was the first tornado to strike downtown Atlanta since record-keeping began in the late 1800s) around 01:40 UTC on 15 March 2008 (9:40 PM local time on 14 March 2008), causing EF-2 damage over a 6 mile long and 200 yard wide path (CNN report). An animation of... Read More
The large (275 square mile) White Sands National Monument is an very familiar landmark on satellite imagery — the world’s largest surface deposit of gypsum sand stands out as a prominent white feature against the surrounding mountains and valleys of southern New Mexico. Strong winds across that region on 14 March 2008 (gusts as high... Read More
[Hat-tip to Gregg Gallina (NOAA/NESDIS Satellite Analysis Branch) for bringing this interesting case to our attention…] A false-color RGB image derived from 1-km resolution NOAA-18 AVHRR data (above) showed a long, narrow cloud plume streaming northwestward from Bennett Island (or “Ostrov Bennetta”, a tiny island... Read More
[Image source: Liam Gumley, SSEC/CIMSS] A comparison of two consecutive MODIS true color images from the same day (viewed using Google Earth, above) reveals that numerous small fires developed (and produced smoke plumes) within a relatively short amount of time across the southeastern US on 12 March 2008. The satellite overpass... Read More
