A series of mid- to late-April MODIS true color images from the SSEC MODIS Today site (above) reveals that many of the lakes across northern Minnesota were still ice-covered as of 29 April 2008. According to the Minnesota State Climatology Office, the “ice-out” (or melting) of lakes across northern Minnesota this Spring season is delayed... Read More

Severe convection along an advancing cold frontal boundary was responsible for several tornadoes and reports of damaging winds across southeastern Virginia on 28 April 2008 (SPC storm reports | Wakefield, Virginia NWS forecast office storm report). AWIPS images of the GOES-12 10.7 µm IR channel data (above) showed that cloud top brightness temperatures began to cool into the -55 to... Read More

AWIPS images of the MODIS visible channel, 1.6 µm near-IR “snow/ice” channel, and Land Surface Temperature (LST) product (above) depicted a broad swath of heavy snow on the ground across parts of eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota on 26 April 2008. Snowfall amounts included 19.0 inches at Watertown, South... Read More

Clusters of severe thunderstorms developed along the Texas / New Mexico border region during the late morning and afternoon hours on 23 April 2008. GOES-12 visible images (above) showed multiple low-level convective outflow boundaries that moved westward — and these outflow boundaries then played a role in subsequent convective development later in... Read More