GOES-18  images in this blog post are preliminary and non-operational

GOES-18 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed the formation of a small pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) cloud — generated by a wildfire that was burning near the northwest coast of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada — on 24 June 2022. The pyroCB cloud then drifted southeastward across the lake, toward Resolute Bay (CYFR). Incidentally, this was Canada’s first documented pyroCb of the 2022 wildfire season.

Suomi-NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images valid at 1930 UTC (above) showed the pyroCb shortly after it formed (when it exhibited a minimum cloud-top 11.45 µm infrared brightness temperature of -49C, lighter shades of red) — and Suomi-NPP VIIRS images valid at 1930 UTC (below) displayed the pyroCb over Great Slave Lake at 2110 UTC (when it exhibited a minimum cloud-top 11.45 µm infrared brightness temperature of -54C, darker shades of violet).

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The radar at NWS Grand Junction, Colorado (KGJT) was down for scheduled maintenance in late June 2022 — and on 23 June, overlapping 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sectors provided 30-second GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above), which showed the development of thunderstorms across a portion of their County Warning Area (which includes eastern Utah and western Colorado) to help fill their gap in radar coverage. These particular storms did not reach severe levels, but some produced small hail, strong winds and heavy rainfall (Local Storm Reports).

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GOES-18 images in this blog post are preliminary and non-operational

GOES-18 True Color RGB images created using Geo2Grid (above) showed smoke from Alaskan wildfires that had been transported southward over Kodiak Island and the northern Gulf of Alaska. Most of this smoke remained aloft — note that although Kodiak began reporting smoke late in the day, the surface visibility remained at 10 miles (below).

A composite of VIIRS True Color imagery (below) showed the location of active fires over Alaska on that day.

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Suomi-NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed a variety of Beaufort Sea ice floe motion within the nearshore waters of Alaska and Yukon during the 20-21 June 2022 period. Just north of Utqiavik (or Barrow, PABR), a sharp “shear line” was seen on 20 June — with a narrow line of ice flows moving east-northeastward, directly adjacent to the the pack ice that was moving westward.

Farther to the east (in the bottom right corner of this satellite scene), a fracture in the fast ice off the Yukon coastline led to the separation of a large ice floe on 21 June — which then drifted west-northwestward. Of note were the unusually warm surface air temperatures at stations near/along the northern coastline of Yukon, with some temperature readings rising into the upper 50s and low 60s F.

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