A strong storm rapidly deepened as it moved northeastward across the Upper Midwest and western Great Lakes on 16 March 2016. GOES-13 Water Vapor (6.5 µm) images (above) showed the evolution of the system as the cloud shield expanded and became more elongated in a west-to-east orientation. On the previous day, this storm produced widespread hail and tornadoes from far eastern Iowa into northern and central Illinois (SPC storm reports).

A closer view of GOES-13 Visible (0.63 µm) images with METAR surface reports (below) revealed the strong winds caused by the tight pressure gradient — a peak wind gust of 61 mph was recorded at Waukesha in southeastern Wisconsin, with multiple power outages across the region caused by wind-related tree damage. Heavy rain (as much as 2-3 inches) produced some minor river flooding in various parts of Wisconsin; across northern Wisconsin, northeastern Minnesota, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan the rain changed to snow, with as much as 18.5 inches accumulating at Redridge, Michigan, 13.0 inches at Lutsen, Minnesota, and 8.0 inches at Poplar and Sand Bay, Wisconsin. The weight of the wet snow was causing tree limbs to fall, with additional power outages being reported.

With the strong winds associated with this storm, there were also scattered pilot reports of moderate turbulence across the region, including 2 reports of severe turbulence over southern Wisconsin as seen below.

View only this post Read Less

There were numerous pilot reports of Moderate to Severe turbulence (symbols) over much of the Midwest on 11 March 2016, as shown plotted on 4-km resolution GOES-13 (GOES-East) Water Vapor (6.5 µm) images (above). A packet of transverse banding cloud features developed over eastern Kansas after about 1515 UTC, and moved northeastward over northwestern Missouri/southeastern Nebraska/Iowa/northern Illinois/southern Wisconsin during the day.

The transverse banding cloud filaments showed up with a bit more clarity on a 1-km resolution Aqua MODIS Water Vapor (6.7 µm) image at 1919 UTC (below).

A MODIS Cirrus (1.4 µm) image at 1738 UTC (below) was also a very effective tool for helping to visualize the transverse banding cloud filaments. A Turbulence SIGMET had been issued at 1433 UTC for much of the region, due to wind shear associated with jet steam aloft. Many of the pilot reports were noted to be Clear Air Turbulence (CAT), with one describing the severe turbulence encounter as “one jolt“. It can be seen from the GFS model isotachs of Maximum Wind that the reports of turbulence occurred within the entrance region of a curved jet stream segment, which are areas that favor the development of strong vertical and horizontal wind shear responsible for turbulence.

On a comparison of 1-km resolution Aqua MODIS Visible (0.65 µm) and Infrared Window (11.0 µm) images at 1919 UTC (below), the very thin nature of the transverse banding cirrus cloud features made them difficult to identify on the Visible image; they also exhibited very warm Infrared brightness temperature values (around -15º C) due to the fact that the satellite was also sensing a good deal of warm thermal radiation from the ground surface below the thin cirrus. As seen in the previous example above, the transverse banding high cloud filaments showed up very well on the MODIS 1.38 µm Cirrus image. Imagery from this 1.38 µm spectral band will also be available from the ABI instrument on GOES-R.

Hat tip to Scott Dennstaedt for the heads-up on this event:

@CIMSS_Satellite Looks like a nasty turbulence environment today over the Midwest. Lots of urgent PIREPs & SIGMET pic.twitter.com/pc8PU5xsXf

— Scott Dennstaedt (@AvWxWorkshops) March 11, 2016

 

View only this post Read Less

The shadow of the total solar eclipse of 09 March 2016 was captured by a number of geostationary satellites, including JMA Himawari-8 (above; also available as either a large 140 Mbyte animated GIF, or a YouTube video: large) | small) and KMA COMS-1 (below). The Himawari-8 true-color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) images were created using the Simple Hybrid Contrast Stretch (SHCS) method by Yasuhiko Sumida, SSEC visiting scientist from JMA.

Toward the end of the eclipse, the shadow was also seen with NOAA GOES-15 (below) as it moved northwest and north of Hawai’i.

In addition, the eclipse shadow was captured with the Chinese satellites FY-2E and FY-2G (below).

View only this post Read Less

An area of low pressure rapidly intensified off the US East Coast during the 04 March – 05 March 2016 period (surface analyses). GOES-13 (GOES-East) Water Vapor (6.5 µm) images (above; also available as a large 57 Mbyte animated gif) showed classic signatures of the various stages of strong mid-latitude cyclone development — most notably the formation of a well-defined comma head and dry slot. Even though the storm was well offshore, impacts near and along the coast included snowfall amounts as high as 6.7 inches at Princess Anne, Maryland, 5.0 inches at Montross, Virginia, and 2.6 inches at Topsfield, Massachusetts; winds gusted to 55 mph at Jennettes Pier, North Carolina and 53 mph at Nantucket, Massachusetts. In Newfoundland, Gander received 17.3 inches of snow, and winds gusted to 77 mph at Cape Pine.

Aqua MODIS Water Vapor (6.7 µm), Infrared Window (11.0 µm), and Visible (0.65 µm) images at 1737 UTC (above) and Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images at 1722 UTC (below) showed the storm around the time the Ocean Prediction Center indicated that it began producing hurricane force winds (18 UTC analysis).

A sequence of POES AVHRR Infrared (12.0 µm) images at 1852, 2205, and 0100 UTC along with Metop ASCAT surface scatterometer winds (below) showed the storm as it continued to intensify. Even though AWIPS labeled the ASCAT winds with a time stamp of 0228 UTC, cursor sampling found winds as strong as 57 knots south of the storm center and 59 knots north of the storm center at 0155-0156 UTC.

The Ocean Prediction Center posted an animation of Geocolor images of the storm on Twitter:

Geocolor satellite showing hurricane force low developing off SE coast over past few days & then turning NE. #GRPG pic.twitter.com/1uJmhHxfPs

— NWS OPC (@NWSOPC) March 7, 2016

View only this post Read Less