A large outbreak of blowing dust developed in the wake of a cold frontal passage across parts of New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma on 22 January 2012. At Lubbock, Texas winds gusted to 60 mph, and surface visibility was reduced to 0.5 mile. The strongest wind gust was 77 mph,... Read More
Strong winds aloft associated with a cyclonically-curved jet streak over the Northern Rocky Mountains were responsible for a number of mountain waves and lee “banner clouds” over parts of Wyoming and Montana on 25 December – 26 December 2011. A side-by-side comparison of GOES-15 (GOES-West) and GOES-13 (GOES-East) 6.5 µm water vapor... Read More
McIDAS images of 4-km resolution GOES-15 6.5 µm water vapor channel data (above; click image to play animation) showed an intense upper level shortwave trough of low pressure moving northeastward across southcentral and eastern Alaska on 18 December 2011. Strong southerly flow associated with this system brought unseasonably warm air... Read More
The 2000-acre “Caughlin Fire” started burning around 08:45 UTC (1:45 am local time) in the hilly terrain near Reno, Nevada, and soon grew out of control due to strong winds gusting as high as 74 mph. McIDAS images of GOES-15 3.9 µm shortwave IR data (above) showed the “hot spot”... Read More
