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Offshore islands as barriers to fog

Moist air that moves from the mainland USA to over the north Atlantic will often induce fog formation over those cold shelf waters.  This is a common occurrence (see this blog post, for a recent example) GOES-16 True-color imagery, above, from 1301-2101 UTC on 7 June 2021, shows the northeastward progress of... Read More

GOES-16 True-Color imagery, 1301-2101 UTC on 7 June 2021 (Click to animate)

Moist air that moves from the mainland USA to over the north Atlantic will often induce fog formation over those cold shelf waters.  This is a common occurrence (see this blog post, for a recent example) GOES-16 True-color imagery, above, from 1301-2101 UTC on 7 June 2021, shows the northeastward progress of a fog bank. Note how Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket all served as barriers to the fog.  Such behavior is most likely when a strong inversion is in place.  The closest upper air sounding, Upton NY, over eastern Long Island, below, from this site, did show a very strong surface inversion at 1200 UTC as well as brisk southwesterly winds in the lower levels of the atmosphere. The strong inversion would also allow the bow wake to form upwind of the islands, as observed. (The inversion at Upton persisted through the day! 00Z 8 June sounding is here)

Fog does not penetrate far inland along the coast. Solar heating over land will induce vertical mixing that evaporates any fog over land. A similar event occurred on 8 June.

Upton, NY, rawinsonde, 1200 UTC on 7 June 2021 (click to enlarge)

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Enhanced aerosols along a cold front in the Upper Midwest

GOES-16 (GOES-East) CIMSS Natural Color RGB images along with the Aerosol Optical Depth derived product (above) showed a cold front that was acting to focus a hazy band of aerosols — likely smoke — across the Upper Midwest on 06 June 2021. AOD values in the vicinity of the cold front were as high as 2.0 (darker... Read More

GOES-16 CIMSS Natural Color RGB and Aerosol Optical Depth product [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 CIMSS Natural Color RGB images and Aerosol Optical Depth product [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) CIMSS Natural Color RGB images along with the Aerosol Optical Depth derived product (above) showed a cold front that was acting to focus a hazy band of aerosols — likely smoke — across the Upper Midwest on 06 June 2021. AOD values in the vicinity of the cold front were as high as 2.0 (darker blue).

The hazy signature of the cold frontal aerosols was better highlighted by GOES-16 True Color RGB images, created using Geo2Grid (below). One feature of interest was the group of long shadows cast by convective towers onto the top of the aerosol layer in central  Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin.

GOES-16 True Color RGB images [click to play animation | <a href="https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/images/2021/06/210606_goes16_trueColorRGB_Upper_Midwest_coldfront_haze_anim.mp4"><strong>MP4</strong></a>]

GOES-16 True Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

In addition, 2 relatively long smoke plumes could be seen streaming rapidly east-southeastward across northern North Dakota.

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Lake Superior lake breeze

The lake breeze prevails! Visible on radar, a strong lake breeze off Lake Superior has given some quick heat relief to our coastal regions. Areas in Superior and Park Point have dropped into the upper 50s up on the hill we have fallen into the mid 70s. #mnwx #wiwx... Read More


GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above) displayed the cooling effect of the lake breeze on land surfaces in Minnesota and Wisconsin on 05 June 2021.

A plot of surface data from Duluth Sky Harbor Airport (below) showed that the temperature dropped from 97ºF to 64ºF in 20 minutes as the lake breeze arrived. Large and rapid temperature drops were also seen at Superior, Wisconsin (plot | data) and Cloquet, Minnesota (plot | data).

Plot of surface data from Duluth Sky Harbor Airport [click to enlarge]

Plot of surface data from Duluth Sky Harbor Airport [click to enlarge]

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SAR winds over Lake Superior (part II)

This past CIMSS Blog Post showed a region of very strong bowing winds diagnosed by Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data and associated with a convective complex over Lake Superior before sunset on 25 May 2021.   On 3 June 2021, shortly after sunrise (SAR overpasses over the Great Lakes typically occur around 0000 and 1200... Read More

SAR Wind Speeds from RCM3 over Lake Superior at 1152 UTC on 3 June 2021 (Click to enlarge)

This past CIMSS Blog Post showed a region of very strong bowing winds diagnosed by Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data and associated with a convective complex over Lake Superior before sunset on 25 May 2021.   On 3 June 2021, shortly after sunrise (SAR overpasses over the Great Lakes typically occur around 0000 and 1200 UTC), SAR winds from RCM3 (RADARSat Constellation Mission 3) (as shown at this website), showed isolated patches over northern Lake Superior of very strong winds — in excess of 25 m/s! (SAR wind imagery is from this website)

GOES-16 visible imagery (0.64 µm), below, from 1120 – 1200 UTC, visualized using CSPP Geosphere, shows the modest convection associated with these winds.

GOES-16 visible (0.64 µm) imagery, 1120-1200 UTC on 3 June 2021 (Click to enlarge)

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