GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 um) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 um) images (above) showed smoke plumes and hot thermal signatures associated with wildfires between Pueblo (MMPB) and Veracruz (MMVC) in southern Mexico — smoke from these fire was drifting westward over the Mexico City (MMMX) area.

Farther to the east, GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared images (below) displayed the hot thermal signatures of widespread agricultural fires across Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Such fires occur here and over much of Central America as farmers prepare their fields for another round of crop planting.

On a larger scale, GOES-16 True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images created using Geo2Grid (below) revealed the northward transport of smoke across the Gulf of Mexico, which made it as far north as southern Texas by the end of the day.

View only this post Read Less

Two interesting small-scale features were seen in GOES-16 (GOES-East) imagery on 24 March 2020. First of all, 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed a mesovortex that was migrating west-northwestward across Lake Erie during the day. This feature had a diameter of around 10 miles — such a small-scale circulation was not captured by Metop-A ASCAT surface scatterometer data.

During the preceding overnight hours, an early signature of the mesovortex was evident in Suomi NPP VIIRS Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) and “Fog product” Brightness Temperature Difference (BTD) images at 0806 UTC (below).

The second feature of interest was a pre-cold-frontal undular bore that was moving eastward across the Dakotas, as seen in Day Cloud Phase Distinction Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (below).

View only this post Read Less

The day before the earliest vernal equinox (0349 UTC on 20 March) in more than 100 years (explanation) is depicted above in an image (courtesy Rick Kohrs, SSEC)  that includes vertical slices of local noon imagery on 19 March.  The sun was directly overhead, passing from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere, at noon 20 March at 121.7 degrees East Longitude, close to Bukaan on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia.

View only this post Read Less

As a winter storm began to organize over Colorado on 19 March 2020, GOES-16 (GOES-East) Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 um) images (above) showed the developing  middle tropospheric cyclonic circulation across the Colorado/Kansas/Nebraska border area. Peak wind gusts included 60 mph in Colorado and Nebraska, and 62 mph in Kansas (WPC Storm Summary).

As a result of the strong winds, several areas of blowing dust were seen in GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 um), Split Window Difference (10.3-12.3 um) and Dust Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (below): (1) a well-defined plume that originated in southeastern Colorado and moved northeastward across western Kansas, (2) a smaller plume originating north/northwest of Lamar, Colorado which moved eastward toward the Colorado/Kansas border, (3) a small plume that originated over the burn scar from the 07 March “Beaver Fire” in the Oklahoma Panhandle, and (4) multiple narrow plumes of dust in the wake of a cold front that moved southeastward across the region late in the day (which reduced the surface visiblity to 2 miles in southwestern Kansas).

A NOAA-20 True Color RGB image as viewed using RealEarth (below) provided a more detailed view of the dust plume north of Lamar, Colorado as well as the longer plume which stretched from southeastern Colorado into western Kansas.

GOES-16 Visible images with plots of GLM Groups (below) revealed a few clusters of lightning associated with convective elements that were likely producing thundersnow across northeastern Colorado and near the Colorado/Nebraska border. Where warmer air was still present near the Colorado/Kansas border, a more longer-lived thunderstorm was producing rainfall at the surface.

This poor TV tower was blasted with #lightning about 60 times yesterday during the winter storm. @JimCantore we had a huge #thundersnow event in #COwx yesterday triggered by TV towers and wind turbines. Check out the blog I wrote here: https://t.co/9lqqL1cK78 pic.twitter.com/F7rkDOhCVM

— Ch?is Vagas|?y (@COweatherman) March 20, 2020

===== 20 March Update =====

On the following day, GOES-16 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images (above) showed the large swath of fresh snow cover (shades of green) produced by this storm as it moved northeastward across the Upper Midwest. Clouds persisted over much of eastern Colorado, masking the extent of the snow cover there.

===== 21 March Update =====

On 21 March, a decrease in cloudiness over eastern Colorado allowed much of the snow cover (shades of cyan) to be seen in a swath of 30-meter resolution Landsat-8 False Color imagery as viewed using RealEarth (above). The effects of terrain were evident, with a lack of snow cover seen in areas where downslope flow was prevalent during the winter storm.

View only this post Read Less