1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) Fire Temperature RGB and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) along with 5-minute GOES-16 (GOES-East) Fire Power and Fire Temperature (above) displayed thermal signatures of the Calf Canyon Fire and the Cerra Pelado Fire in northern New Mexico on 08 May 2022. The Fire Temperature and Fire Power derived products are components of the GOES Fire Detection and Characterization Algorithm FDCA.

The northern portion of the Calf Canyon Fire exhibited extreme behavior, with rapid intensification and rates of spread that led to evacuation orders being issued for 2 communities just north of Mora. That part of the fire also exhibited maximum 3.9 µm brightness temperatures of 138.71ºC — which is the saturation temperature of ABI Band 7 detectors — beginning around 1900 UTC.

GOES-16 True Color RGB images created using Geo2Grid (below) revealed the dense smoke plumes (pale shades of white) from the the wildfires, in addition to broad plumes of blowing dust (shades of tan) originating in northwestern New Mexico — strong winds across the region aided in the rapid northeastward transport of these aerosols.

GOES-16 Split Window Difference (10.3 µm – 12.3 µm) images (below) include plots of  hourly surface visibility — as the plume of blowing dust (shades of yellow to blue) from northwestern New Mexico was transported northeastward across Colorado, it appears to have played a role in reducing the visibility to as little as 2-3 miles at some locations (although local blowing dust sources may have also contributed to these low visibility values).

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The Calf Canyon fire, which began on April 19, 2022, and the Hermits Peak fire, which began on April 6, 2022, both continue to burn in northern New Mexico. (Recently posted on the CIMSS blog here and here.) The Hermits Peak fire began as a prescribed burn under what were believed to be favorable conditions. The district ranger of the Las Vegas Ranger District is quoted to have said “Our prescribed burn from last Wednesday was the cause of the Hermits Peak Fire. With that said, we take full responsibility and with a heavy heart, we are really sorry for what happened.”

The wildfires combined on April 23, 2022, but can be seen in the GOES-16 imagery below to now exist in two separate areas in western Mora and San Miguel counties.

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This NOAA/OSPO website shows regions where SAR data are available each day. SAR data can also be imported into AWIPS, as shown in the animation above, which animation has the SAR data overlain on top of GOES-17 Band 7 (Shortwave IR, 3.9 µm) data. Note that SAR winds are not valid over the land — the stronger returns over the islands are instead telling you something about the surface. (Compare this image to a Landsat image — there’s a good correlation!)

A zoomed-in version of the imagery over the ?Alenuih?h? Channel between the Big Island of Hawai’i and Maui is shown below as a toggle between the 3.9 µm and the winds. The significant funneling between the two islands is readily apparent, with winds increasing from about 15 knots northeast of the Big Island to closer to 25 knots within the channel.

A zoom-in over Maui and Molokai, below, details winds around those islands as well, with strong winds between Molokai and Lanai, and an apparent col to the lee of Maui.

Farther north, over the open Pacific to the north of the Hawai’ian Islands, SAR data shows enhancements in wind underneath structures that are apparent in the Band 7 imagery!

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Data on this website (if you click through to 5 May 2022) shows regions where the RCM constellation has produced data. There are very small footprint scenes (shown below) over the Red River of the North, where flooding is ongoing (blog post 1; blog post 2). The Normalized Radar Cross Section (NRCS) imagery within those small footprints is shown sequentially, from south to north, above. The NRCS imagery gives very high-resolution snapshots of flooded regions. This NRCS image from 00:13:39 has the largest extent of flooding within it.

A single image that shows the 6 scenes, aligned from south to north, is available here. (Warning: It’s large)

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Data were also available from earlier in May. Compare this RCM2 NRCS image from 00:29:27 on 3 May to this RCM3 NRCS image from 00:05:41 on 4 May to this RCM3 NRCS from 00:13:39 on May 5th. Flooding has expanded slightly over the two days.

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