Fires that developed over the plains of Saskatchewan, near Meadow Lake in west-central Saskatchewan, and near Prince Albert in central Saskatchewan, showed up well in Visible and Infrared imagery, shown above.  A wind shift that occurred as the fires burned changed the direction of the smoke plume.  Prince Albert had visibilities that dropped... Read More

A large pyroCumulonimbus (pyroCb) cloud developed from the Mallard Fire in the Texas Panhandle on 11 May 2018, aided by warm temperatures and strong winds ahead of an approaching dryline (surface analyses).  1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (above) showed the large thermal... Read More

The combination of strong winds and low relative humidity prompted the SPC to forecast elevated to critical fire weather potential across parts of the Upper Midwest on 29 April 2018. A Mesoscale Domain Sector was positioned over the region, providing data at 1-minute intervals — and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above) revealed... Read More

1-minute Mesoscale Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above) showed a number of “hot spot” signatures (dark black to red pixels) associated with grass fires that began burning in southeastern Colorado, southwest Kansas and the Oklahoma/Texas Panhandles on 17 April 2018. These fires spread very rapidly with strong surface winds (as high... Read More