The dominant weather story across much of the central United States remains the continuing impact of the Minnesota and Ontario wildfires on the air quality in the upper Midwest. You can see just how impactful the smoke was by looking at this slider of two images from the Blog’s home... Read More
1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Infrared Window images (above) included plots of Flood Watch/Warning/Advisory polygons (Flash Flood Warnings appeared as red polygons, while Flash Flood Emergencies appeared as bold red polygons) across the Hill Country of Texas on 16 July 2026. After previous days of heavy rainfall — which... Read More
Numerous wildfires began to increase in size and intensity from northern Minnesota to central Canada in mid-July 2026, as previously discussed on this blog (13 July | 14 July | 15 July). A large scale view of the GOES-19 (GOES-East) Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) derived product on 15 July (above) displayed the long-range transport of... Read More
Friend of the Blog Patrick Ayd, Science Operations Officer at NWS Duluth, passed on this interesting observation from the morning of 15 July 2026. The ongoing wildfires in Minnesota and Ontario, which we discussed in a blog post a few days ago, show up amazingly well when looking at the VIIRS Day/Night Band (DNB). The... Read More
