Persistent southerly to westerly flow over the Pacific Northwest has allowed a series of disturbances to produce rain each day so far this month in Seattle, including a record rainfall on December 7th (a day that was particularly dark, given the extensive clouds and the low sun angle: Link). (Update: Seattle also had record daily rainfall on... Read More
On 20 November, at 0922 UTC, the GOES-13 Sounder experienced an anomaly (the GOES-13 Sounder had Filter Wheel anomalies in 2012 as well: Link; Link). GOES Engineers determined that the Filter Wheel had stopped moving (the filter wheel aligns the infrared detectors with the incoming data) so data were not... Read More
The Storm Prediction Center has revised its criteria for initiating GOES Rapid Scan Operations (RSO) calls. Previously, RSO was automatically activated when a Moderate Risk (MDT) appeared in the SPC Day 1 Convective Outlook. On October 1st that was changed per a September email from SPC:Starting October 1, the SPC Lead Forecaster... Read More
GOES-13 Visible Imagery, above, shows Tropical Storm Kate northeast of the Bahamas late in the day on 9 November. The storm is over a region of warm sea surface temperatures, below (imagery from the CIMSS Tropical Weather Site), in an environment of low shear. RapidScat winds show winds between 35 and 40 knots... Read More
