Examples of “industrial-enhanced snow” were seen in the Texas Panhandle region on 10 February 2014. In the overnight hours, areas downwind of agricultural plants near Borger (KBGD) received anywhere from 3.0 to 4.3 inches of snowfall. During the following morning and early afternoon hours, the particles contained within the hot, moist plume emanating from a factory located just northeast of Amarillo (KAMA) acted to glaciate the supercooled water droplets within the surrounding stratus deck — as the ice particles fell out of the cloud as snow, the cloud deck began to partially dissipate as seen in McIDAS images of 1-km resolution GOES-15 (GOES-West) and GOES-13 (GOES-East) 0.63 µm visible channel data (above).

A similar comparison of 4-km resolution GOES-15 and GOES-13 3.9 µm shortwave IR images (below) confirmed that the plume streaming southward from the Amarillo area was indeed glaciated — the plume appeared significantly colder (brighter white) compared to the surrounding supercooled water droplet stratus cloud deck, which appeared warmer (darker gray) due to the shortwave IR channel’s sensitivity to the reflection of solar radiation off the liquid droplet cloud tops.

A comparison of AWIPS images of 1-km resolution Terra MODIS 0.65 µm visible channel, 3.7 µm shortwave IR channel, and 11.0 µm IR window channel images (below) provided a slightly sharper view than the GOES images. Again, the glaciated plume south of Amarillo appeared colder (brighter white) than the surrounding supercooled water droplet clouds; on the IR window channel image, the slightly warmer (darker gray) signature was due to the satellite sensing radiation from the warmer ground surface through the thinner glaciated areas of the cloud plume.

A 250-meter resolution Terrra MODIS true-color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) image from the SSEC MODIS Today site (below; visualized using Google Earth) showed that the plume was drifting southward over parts of Interstate 27; one inch of snowfall was reported as far south as Happy, in the far northern part of Swisher county.

===== 11 February Update =====

On the folllowing day, a Terra MODIS true-color image at 17:44 UTC (below; visualized using Google Earth) provided a fantastic view of the mesoscale patch of snow cover southwest of Borger, Texas.

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McIDAS images of GOES-13 0.6 µm visible channel data (above; click image to play animation) showed the motion of ice in the nearshore waters of Lake Michigan on 06 February 2014. Along the coast of Wisconsin, westerly winds — gusting as high as 27 knots at Manitowoc (KMTW), and 23 knots at Sheboygan (KSBM) — were causing the thin ice to continue drifting eastward during the day.

Another feature of interest seen on the GOES-13 visible imagery was a long, narrow cloud plume streaming southeastward in far northern Illinois — this cloud plume was a result of waste heat and moisture from the cooling towers at the Byron Nuclear Generating Station (located just east of the red “>” symbol on the images). Although there appeared to be no meteorological clouds over northern Illinois during the late morning and afternoon hours, light snow was reported at De Kalb from 16 – 19 UTC (animation of visible images, with surface reports). An AWIPS comparison of 1-km resolution MODIS 0.65 µm visible channel and 3.7 µm shortwave IR channel images at 17:15 UTC (below) indicated that the cloud plume from the Byron nuclear plant appeared to be drifting very near De Kalb (KDKB), which was likely causing the light snow (the surface visibility at De Kalb was reduced to 2.5 miles at 17 UTC). On the MODIS 3.7 µm shortwave IR image, the widespread supercooled water droplet clouds — as well as the nuclear power plant plume — appeared warmer (darker gray) than the surrounding snow-covered ground, due to this channel’s sensitivity to solar radiation reflected off the cloud top water droplets.

At least one other case of “nuclear power plant effect” snowfall has been documented, downwind of the Beaver Valley power plant in Pennsylvania.

Farther to the north, a significant amount of ice motion could also be seen in the western portion of Lake Superior (below; click image to play animation).

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McIDAS images of EUMETSAT Meteosat-10 0.635 µm visible channel data (above; click image to play animation) showed the cloud structure associated with a powerful midlatitude cyclone that was moving northeastward toward the British Isles on 04 February 2014. This storm — the latest in a series of intense North Atlantic Ocean storms to batter the region during the winter of 2013/2014 — produced very strong winds (gusting to 92 mph on the Isle of Scilly), heavy rain, and flooding; power was cut to over 40,000 customers, and rail service was disrupted.

The evolution of the storm could be seen on hourly composites of geostationary and polar-orbiting satellite water vapor channel imagery covering the 03-05 February period (below), visualized using the SSEC RealEarth web map server. As the large storm began to dissipate, another system could be seen developing upstream over the North Atlantic Ocean. Also of note are the subtle wave structures that could be seen in the water vapor imagery downwind of the Azores, caused by strong winds interacting with the high terrain of the islands (the tallest point is Pico, at 2,351 meters or 7,713 ft).

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After 2 days of renewed activity, the Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador produced some minor eruptions punctuated by a single large eruption on 01 February 2014. GOES-13 false-color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) images specifically tailored to help identify and track volcanic features (above; click image to play animation) showed (1) the southeastward drift of the initial volcanic plume (estimated to be as high as 26,000 feet) from 19:45 – 22:15 UTC, followed by (2) the rapid expansion and southward drift of the larger volcanic plume (estimated to be as high as 45,000 feet) after 22:45 UTC, and (3) another smaller volcanic plume (estimated to be as high as 23,000 feet) drifting southeastward after 02:45 UTC on 02 February.

McIDAS images of GOES-13 3.9 µm shortwave IR data (below; click image to play animation) revealed the presence of a distinct “hot spot” (dark black to yellow to red enhancement) at the summit of the volcano after 22:45 UTC — the hottest pixel detected was 338.5 K or 66.4º C at 00:45 UTC on 02 February.

As the sun was setting, the rapidly-rising volcanic ash plume associated with the stronger eruption cast a long shadow toward the east-northeast on the 22:45 UTC GOES-13 0.63 µm visible channel image (below).

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