Aided in part by precipitation associated with Hurricane Irma, some areas of Florida have received record rainfall during the June-October 2017 period:

Tuesday’s 2.22″ of rainfall at Melbourne pushed the total since September 1st over 3″ ahead of the previous record wettest September-October pic.twitter.com/dMdI43OkdI

— NWS Melbourne (@NWSMelbourne) October 25, 2017

Wettest June 1-Oct 31 (~wet season) on record (since 1911) for #Miami– yes it has been a wet 5 months (with more coming Saturday)! ?? pic.twitter.com/VmhSqkU7uO

— Eric Blake ? (@EricBlake12) October 26, 2017

* GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational and are undergoing testing *

A comparison of GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Near-Infrared “Vegetation” (0.86 µm) and Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) images (above) showed that water was a strong absorber of radiation at 0.86 µm and 1.61 µm wavelengths — therefore wet ground, rivers, lakes and the oceans appeared dark in those images. This makes those two GOES-16 ABI spectral bands useful for identifying areas of flooding.

Two areas in Florida are noteworthy on the images: the St. Johns River in the northeast part of the state (where Moderate Flooding had been occurring), and parts of South Florida (which had just received an additional 1-5 inches of rain on  the previous day).

A closer look at those 2 areas using Terra MODIS Visible (0.65 µm) and Near-Infrared “:Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) images are shown below.

In stark contrast to the periods of heavy rain, a strong cold front brought clear skies and very dry air over Florida, as seen in MIMIC Total Precipitble Water product (below).

This dry air evoked enthusiasm in least one South Florida resident:

Amazing Fall day across south #Florida– lowest precipitable water on record so early in the dry season- beautiful! HT @tuffiewx pic.twitter.com/iAbSc6L3tA

— Eric Blake ? (@EricBlake12) October 26, 2017

View only this post Read Less

#HappyBirthday to GOES! The @NOAASatellites geostationary satellite network was born #OTD in 1975 with the launch of GOES 1. #GoingGoingGone pic.twitter.com/09sSASjBOJ

— NASA History Office (@NASAhistory) October 16, 2017

The first GOES-1 Visible (0.65 µm) image was transmitted at 1645 UTC on 25 October 1975 (below).

Sample GOES-1 Visible images are shown below (courtesy of Tim Schmit, NOAA/NESDIS/ASPB and the SSEC Data Center), after the satellite had been positioned over the Indian Ocean to support the Global Atmospheric Research Program.

View only this post Read Less

* GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational and are undergoing testing *

The GOES-16 Land Surface Temperature product (above, courtesy of Jordan Gerth, CIMSS) revealed a dramatic increase in the land surface temperature (or surface “skin temperature”) following the onset of easterly/northeasterly Santa Ana winds in Southern California’s Ventura County during the overnight and early morning hours of 24 October 2017. Between 06-14 UTC (11 PM-7 AM local time), the surface air temperature increased from 66-91ºF at Oxnard (KOXR), 75-90ºF at Point Mugu (KNTD) and 77-91ºF at Camarillo (KCMA). Surface wind gusts of 32 mph were recorded at Camarillo during this period, although 64 mph was reported at South Mountain (elevation 2350 feet)..

A warming trend in that same area was also evident in the MODIS Land Surface Temperature product (below), during the time between the Terra (0539 UTC) and Aqua (0951 UTC) overpasses — LST values ranged from the low 60s F (lighter shades of yellow) to the upper 80s and low 90s F (darker shades of red) in the higher elevations.

A similar warming signature was seen over Ventura County on GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (below) — although an even more pronounced Santa Ana wind warming signal was evident farther to the southeast over Orange County (where winds gusted as high as 69 mph); note how the warmer orange-enhanced infrared brightness temperatures surged southwestward toward the coast.

A number of record high temperatures resulted from this Santa Ana wind event:

Final record highs for today across SW CA. Some record highs will be possible on Wed as well. #LAHeat #LAWeather #cawx #SoCal pic.twitter.com/gwalGarQmL

— NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) October 25, 2017

In fact, the highest temperature in the Lower 48 states that day was 108ºF at Miramar Naval Air Station and San Luis Obispo, California.

View only this post Read Less

A plot of the Advanced Dvorak Technique for Typhoon Lan (above) showed that the tropical cyclone underwent a period of rapid intensification during the 00-12 UTC period on 20 October 2017.

A 24-hour animation of Himawari-8 rapid-scan (2.5 minute interval) Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images (below) revealed the development of a very large eye during the 20 October/06 UTC to 21 October/06 UTC period.

A nighttime comparison of Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images at 1700 UTC or 2:00 AM kocal time (below; courtesy of William Straka, CIMSS/SSEC) provided a good visualization of the “stadium effect” — an eye that was more narrow at the surface, with a larger diameter at higher altitudes. A packet of mesospheric airglow waves (reference) was also evident on the Day/Night Band image, propagating south-southeastward away from the eye.

A 2-panel comparison of Himawari-8 Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images (below) showed the eye of Lan after it attained Super Typhoon status at 18 UTC on 20 October. Mesovortices could  be seen within the eye on the rapid-scan images.

A large amount of moisture was associated with this tropical cyclone, as depicted by hourly images of the MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product (below) — note the large area with TPW values of 70 mm or greater (light violet color enhancement).

A TPW value of 72.5 mm (2.87 inches) was derived from the Minamidaitojima, Japan rawinsonde data at 12 UTC on 21 October (below). Minamidaitojima is the largest island in the Daito Islands group southeast of Okinawa, Japan  — this station was just to the northeast of Lan around 12 UTC.

View only this post Read Less