CIMSS Satellite Blog, CIMSS

Hurricane Earl makes landfall in Belize

By Scott Lindstrom • 4 August 2016

Hurricane Earl made landfall around 0600 UTC on 4 August in Belize. The hourly animation from GOES-14, above, shows a rapid warming of the coldest cloud tops over Earl after landfall, as commonly happens. GOES-14 is out of storage to support SRSO-R Operations beginning Tuesday August 9.The GOES-14 image at landfall shows coldest cloud tops on the north side of the storm. A timely Metop-A overpass (times... Read More

GOES-14 10.7 µm Infrared Window images, hourly from 0115 through 1015 UTC on 4 August 2016 [click to play animation]

Hurricane Earl made landfall around 0600 UTC on 4 August in Belize. The hourly animation from GOES-14, above, shows a rapid warming of the coldest cloud tops over Earl after landfall, as commonly happens. GOES-14 is out of storage to support SRSO-R Operations beginning Tuesday August 9.

The GOES-14 image at landfall shows coldest cloud tops on the north side of the storm. A timely Metop-A overpass (times available at this site) from several hours before landfall provided ASCAT winds, below, that also show strongest winds to the north side of this storm.

Metop-A ASCAT Scatterometer Winds, 0238 UTC 4 August 2016 [click to enlarge]

Metop-A ASCAT Scatterometer Winds, 0238 UTC 4 August 2016 [click to click to enlarge]

Although the strong winds of Earl have diminished now that the storm is over land, Total Precipitable Water values, below, (showing MIRS data, available at this site) remain high and flooding continues to be a threat. Earl is forecast to move along the southern tip of the Bay Campeche starting tomorrow. For more details see the National Hurricane Center website.

Morphed MIRS Total Precipitable Water, 0600 UTC on 4 August 2016 [click to enlarge]

Morphed MIRS Total Precipitable Water, 0600 UTC on 4 August 2016 [click to click to enlarge]

Three geostationary satellites viewed Earl as it moved across the southern Yucatan peninsula. GOES-15, GOES-14 and GOES-13 visible imagery from near 1200 UTC is shown below.

GOES-15, GOES-14, GOES-13 (left, center,right) Visible Imagery of Earl over Belize and Mexico, ~1200 UTC on 4 August 2016 [click to enlarge]

GOES-15, GOES-14, GOES-13 (left, center,right) Visible Imagery of Earl over Belize and Mexico, ~1200 UTC on 4 August 2016 [click to click to enlarge]

Two Geostationary Satellites viewing a system approximately equidistant from both satellites allowed for stereoscopic imagery to be created, below.

GOES-13 and GOES-14 Visible Imagery (0.62 µm), 1415 – 2115 UTC on 4 August 2016 [click to play animation]

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GOES-14 is out of Storage

By Scott Lindstrom • 1 August 2016

GOES-14 has again been reactivated, and is distributing data from its location over the Equator at 105 W. GOES-14 will be entering SRSO-R mode next week, starting on 9 August (link) and continuing through 26 August.Short animations of GOES-14 Visible (0.63 um) and Infrared Window (10.7 um) imagery are shown... Read More

GOES-14 Imager Channels at 1755 UTC on 1 August 2016 [Click to enlarge]

GOES-14 has again been reactivated, and is distributing data from its location over the Equator at 105 W. GOES-14 will be entering SRSO-R mode next week, starting on 9 August (link) and continuing through 26 August.

Short animations of GOES-14 Visible (0.63 um) and Infrared Window (10.7 um) imagery are shown below.

GOES-14 Visible (0.63 um) images [click to play animation]

GOES-14 Infrared Window (10.7 um) images [click to play animation]

A 3-panel comparison, below, shows Idaho/Montana wildfire smoke plumes as viewed from GOES-15 (GOES-West), GOES-14 and GOES-13 (GOES-East). The images are displayed in the native projection of each satellite.

GOES-15 (left), GOES-14 (center) and GOES-13 (right) Visible (0.63 µm) images [click to play animation]

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Heavy rainfall and flash flooding in Maryland

By Scott Bachmeier • 30 July 2016

A 2-panel comparison of GOES-13 (GOES-East) Visible (0.63 µm) and Infrared Window (10.7 µm) images (above) showed a band of thunderstorms oriented southwest-to-northeast across northern Virginia and northern Maryland late in the day on 30 July 2016. Cells within this band produced very heavy rainfall and extreme flash flooding at Ellicott City,... Read More

GOES-13 0.63 µm Visible (top) and 10.7 µm Infrared Window (bottom) images [click to play animation]

A 2-panel comparison of GOES-13 (GOES-East) Visible (0.63 µm) and Infrared Window (10.7 µm) images (above) showed a band of thunderstorms oriented southwest-to-northeast across northern Virginia and northern Maryland late in the day on 30 July 2016. Cells within this band produced very heavy rainfall and extreme flash flooding at Ellicott City, Maryland — located northwest of Baltimore/Washington International Airport KBWI, and marked with a cyan * symbol — with a total of 6.60 inches of rain in just over 2 hours (NWS Baltimore/Washington Public Information Statement | Event summary). The coldest cloud-top IR brightness temperature was -67º C at 0045 UTC on 31 July (8:45 pm local time).

The MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product at 3-hour intervals (below) indicated the presence of TPW values in the 2.0 to 2.5 inch range over parts of the region.

MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product [click to enlarge]

Upstream rawinsonde data profiles from Washington Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia (below) showed TPW values of 46.8 mm or 1.83 inches at 12 UTC on 30 July, and 49.2 mm or 1.94 inches at 00 UTC on 31 July (although the later data looks suspect, given the balloon was launched as strong thunderstorms were approaching).

Washington Dulles VA rawinsonde profiles [click to enlarge]

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River valley fog in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa

By Scott Bachmeier • 26 July 2016

A nighttime image (above) of the Suomi NPP VIIRS 11.45 µm – 3.74 µm Infrared brightness temperature difference (often referred to as the “fog/stratus product”) showed the development of narrow fingers of river valley fog in parts of southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota and northeastern Iowa at 0735 UTC or 2:35... Read More

Suomi NPP VIIRS 11.45 µm – 3.74 µm Infrared brightness temperature difference (“fog product”) at 0735 UTC [click to enlarge]

A nighttime image (above) of the Suomi NPP VIIRS 11.45 µm – 3.74 µm Infrared brightness temperature difference (often referred to as the “fog/stratus product”) showed the development of narrow fingers of river valley fog in parts of southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota and northeastern Iowa at 0735 UTC or 2:35 am local time on 26 July 2016. At that time the surface visibility was reduced to 1/4 mile at Boscobel, Wisconsin (station identifier KOVS).

During the subsequent daylight hours, GOES-13 Visible (0.63 µm) images (below) revealed the extent of the valley fog which had formed (the yellow symbols denote stations reporting fog). However, this fog quickly dissipated quickly with strong heating from the July sun.

GOES-13 Visible (0.63 µm) images [click to play animation]

This region frequently experiences such episodes of river valley fog, but they are most common during the Autumn months as nights grow longer and nighttime temperatures get colder. In this late July event, the primary ingredient favoring fog formation was high soil moisture due to recent heavy rainfall (below), much of which occurred on 24 July.

7-day precipitation, departure from normal, and percent of normal {click to enlarge]

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Hurricane Earl makes landfall in Belize

GOES-14 is out of Storage

Heavy rainfall and flash flooding in Maryland

River valley fog in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa

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