JMA Hmawari-8 True Color RGB images created using Geo2Grid (above) showed the southwestward-moving volcanic cloud associated with an eruption of Semeru –located at the center of the images — in East Java around 0750 UTC on 04 December 2021. Due to the high water and ice loading within upper portions of the volcanic cloud, no distinct lower-to-middle-altitude volcanic ash signature was seen. The eruption was responsible for over 40 fatalities and the destruction of over 5000 homes; 

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South Korea’s GK2A satellite (carrying the AMI instrument that is very similar to both AHI on Himawari-8 and ABI on GOES-16/GOES-17) is overhead on the Equator at 128 E Longitude, and satellite imagery (link) and products (link) are available online. The low-level Water Vapor animation (GK2A Band 10, 7.3 µm), above, hourly from 0740 to 1640 UTC on 3 December 2021, shows the evolution of Nyotah from a symmetric to asymmetric storm in the central Pacific. The 1500 UTC Advisory from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center shows a storm south and east of Japan that is forecast to weaken significantly in the next two days. The animation also shows Jawad in the Bay of Bengal in a moist corridor between very dry low-level air over southeast Asia and western India/the Arabian Sea. The 1500 UTC advisory for Jawad suggests modest strengthening in the next day then landfall near the border of India and Bangladesh.

MIMIC Total Precipitable Water fields for the 24 hours ending 1600 UTC on 3 December 2021, below, show drying around Nyotah, and the deep (but somewhat isolated) moisture surrounding Jawad.

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One of the products available at the GK2A product site is Rain Rate, and a toggle of that product at 1540 UTC (overlain on top of clean window infrared imagery) and low-level water vapor imagery is shown below. Heaviest instantaneous rains are diagnosed in the ITCZ Monsoon trough centered near Indonesia.

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Thanks to KMA for making these awesome products and channels available!

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The highest peaks of the Big Island of Hawai’i are under Blizzard warnings as of early 3 December 2021, as shown in the screen capture below from the National Weather Service in Honolulu.

The image above shows NUCAPS Sounding Availability in AWIPS over the central Pacific. A long swath of profiles was available from a NOAA-20 overpass near 1200 UTC. Each of the dots represents a profile of temperature and moisture over the Pacific, a large region with little observational data. These retrieved profiles can give useful information about the structure of the atmosphere in advance of a storm. In this case, moisture is apparent, and so is mid-tropospheric drying; thus, evaporational cooling from precipitation might be important. The freezing level of the profiles is also shown, and most values are near 12500′. (Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea top out at 13,679′ and 13,803′, respectively). Note that the relatively low freezing levels extend far to the south, as shown in this NUCAPS profile at 17.3N, 160 W, at the southern edge of the domain above!

Two of the NUCAPS soundings in the animation above are near upper-air radiosondes at Hilo and at Lihue. A toggle between the Hilo sounding and NUCAPS profile is just below; underneath that profile is the toggle between the Lihue soundings and the adjacent NUCAPS profile. Keep in mind with these comparisons that the radiosonde is a sensor at one point moving up through the atmosphere whereas the NUCAPS profile represents a large volume of air. Gross aspects of the two soundings agree: moisture in the levels, dry air aloft.

Individual NUCAPS profiles can be aggregated into gridded fields to depict values along horizontal surfaces. These can be found at this website, for example, from SPoRT. The 850-mb field (a level far below the peaks!) shows temperatures near freezing not too far north of Hawai’i.

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AWIPS tip: It can be tedious to load up individual soundings. PopUp SkewTs can be used in AWIPS to quickly scan through the profiles to identify any threshold values. PopUp SkewTs can be accessed under the Volume Browser.

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Added, 8 December 2021: The NUCAPS Sounding Availability plot, above, shows a swath several days after the snow, and after warmer air has moved in from the east. The easternmost sounding just south of 20 N, below, shows a freezing level closer to 14600′!

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GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with and without plots of Visible Derived Motion Winds (above) showed a lower-tropospheric vortex propagating west-northwestward to the north of Hawai’i on 02 December 2021. There were no ship or buoy reports in the vicinity of the vortex, but Derived Motion Wind speeds were 20-25 knots or less during this time period.

Convergence near the center of the vortex was aiding in the development of some shallow convection — and GOES-17 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images (below) indicated that the tops of many cloud features comprising the vortex were glaciating (exhibiting shades of green to yellow),

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