A comparison of 250-meter resolution Aqua MODIS false-color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) images from the SSEC MODIS Today site on 19 December 2015 and 02 January 2016 (above) showed large increases in the width of portions of the Missouri/Mississippi/Ohio Rivers (as well as many of their tributaries and surrounding lakes) during that 14-day period. These false-color images use MODIS bands 7/2/1 as the R/G/B components — water appears as varying shades of darker blue. Some light snow cover (shades of cyan) can also be seen in the upper left corner of the 02 January image.

A comparison of Aqua MODIS true-color (created using bands 1/4/3) and false-color (created using bands 7/2/1) RGB images on 02 January (below) demonstrated the advantage of the false-color imagery for detection of the extent of river and lake flooding. The high sediment content of the area lakes and rivers made them appear as varying shades of tan to brown on the true-color image, making their boundaries more difficult to distinguish from the similar shades of the surrounding bare ground surfaces. (Note: when GOES-R is launched in late 2016, similar spectral bands on the ABI instrument will allow the creation of these types of true-color and false-color RGB images)

A more detailed view of flooding across the eastern portion of the MODIS images (in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky) was provided by 30-meter resolution Landsat-8 false-color imagery, as visualized using RealEarth (below). A magnified view of the Evansville, Indiana / Owensboro, Kentucky area can be seen here.

Maps of total observed precipitation and departure from normal (below) during the same 14-day period as the 2 MODIS false-color images shown at the top of the blog post revealed that widespread areas received upwards of 8-10 inches of rainfall, which was 6-8 inches above normal for that 2-week period of time.

As a result of water runoff from the heavy precipitation, new records for maximum river gauge height were set for the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, Missouri and Thebes, Illinois (below).

Additional information is available from the NWS Paducah.

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The GOES-13 and GOES-15 Imager provides routine observations at five wavelengths, including 6.5 µm, a wavelength that is sensitive to water vapor absorption (SHyMet lesson). The YouTube animations below show full-disk GOES-13 (GOES-East) and GOES-15 (GOES-West) water vapor images at 3-hour intervals for every day during 2015. GOES-15 shows the remarkable tropical cyclone activity that occurred as a result of warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures over the central Pacific. Much less hurricane activity occurred in the Atlantic.

Once GOES-R is launched in late 2016, the ABI instrument will provide full-disk images at 5-minute intervals, rather than the 3-hour intervals shown here. The animations from GOES-R will contain 288 images per day rather than 8.

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The 10.7 micrometer infrared window channel on GOES-13 and GOES-15 helps monitor the state of the atmosphere and surface. The animations below, from GOES-13 (top) and GOES-15 (bottom), similar to the GOES Water Vapor Animations, show active tropical convection over the Pacific, relatively fewer tropical systems over the Atlantic, an active winter season storm pattern up the US East Coast at the start of the animation, and an active pattern along the US West Coast at the end.

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The evolution of the Blizzard of 02-04 January 1999 — which impacted large portions of the Midwest and Great Lakes regions of the US, as well as parts of eastern Canada — was captured by GOES-8 Water Vapor (6.5 µm, 8-km resolution) images (above; also available as a 61-Mbyte animated GIF). On 01 January, the water vapor image signature of a shortwave trough over New Mexico and Texas could be seen, which began to intensify and move northeastward; at the same time, the signature of another shortwave trough began moving southeastward across eastern Montana and the Dakotas. Energy from this northern shortwave appeared to phase with that of the southern shortwave late on 02 January into early on 03 January, helping the storm to further intensify.

GOES-8 Infrared (10.7 µm, 4-km resolution) images (below; also available as a 111-Mbyte animated GIF) showed that cloud-top IR brightness temperatures began to cool into the -50 to -60º C range (orange to red color enhancement) over large portions of the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions during the day on 02 January. As the bulk of the storm energy moved northeastward over Canada on 03-04 January, evidence of clouds associated with a TROugh of Warm air ALoft (TROWAL) persisted across parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Even though some patches of clouds remained in the aftermath of the blizzard on 04 January, the extent of snow cover across much of the eastern US could be seen — from northern Arkansas to Minnesota, and from the Dakotas and Nebraska to Ohio — on GOES-8 Visible (0.65 µm, 1-km resolution) images (below; also available as a 15 Mbyte animated GIF). Bands of lake effect snow were also evident over each of the Great Lakes, as very cold arctic air flowed across the ice-free waters in the wake of the storm.

In the Upper Midwest region, storm total snowfall amounts included: 28.0 inches in South Haven, Michigan; 26.8 inches in Plymouth, Indiana; 23.0 inches in Dalton, Wisconsin; and 19.6 inches a Chicago O’Hare, Illinois. Chicago recorded 18.6 inches of snow on 02 January — their largest single-day snowfall on record. In Canada, Toronto, Ontario’s Pearson International Airport was closed by the storm, where 16.0 inches of snow fell. With deep snow cover and a cold post-storm arctic air mass in place, the all-time record low temperature for the state of Illinois (-36º F) was set at Congerville on 05 January.

Additional details on the January 1999 Blizzard can be found here and here.

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