A classic winter weather pattern developed over the Pacific Ocean this week setting the stage for significant drought relief for the western U.S., along with heavy to excessive coastal rains and mountain snow measured in feet for the Sierras and Rockies. Even though this is a “classic” winter pattern, it... Read More

A sequence of GOES-16 (GOES-East) Nighttime Microphysics RGB and Day Snow-Fog RGB images (above) showed plumes of “ocean effect” clouds (including a “sound effect” cloud band, originating over Long Island Sound) that produced periods of snowfall from coastal Connecticut and Rhode Island (as well as Block Island) to Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket Island and Cape... Read More

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Day Snow-Fog RGB images (above) showed widespread horizontal convective rolls (HCRs) that were streaming southeastward across much of the north-central US — in the wake of a strong arctic cold front — on 22 December 2022. This HCR signature is often accompanied by significant blowing snow; in fact, many Interstate highways were... Read More

NOAA‘s GOES ABI has been monitoring the late year cold air outbreak over the contiguous US. Infrared ImageryDuring these extreme cold air outbreaks, it may seem like the infrared imagery “confuses” clouds and the cold ground, but this isn’t the case as the instrument just monitors the heat of the... Read More