{"id":31008,"date":"2018-12-07T23:59:51","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T23:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=31008"},"modified":"2018-12-09T03:44:08","modified_gmt":"2018-12-09T03:44:08","slug":"mesoscale-vortices-in-oregon-and-idaho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/31008","title":{"rendered":"Mesoscale vortices in Oregon and Idaho"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">?Cool vortex in the stratus\/fog between Burns Junction and Jordan Valley, Oregon this afternoon. Another one was also visible in a higher cloud deck near the Owyhee Mountains <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/orwx?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#orwx<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/idwx?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#idwx<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sL0GfqBUdp\">pic.twitter.com\/sL0GfqBUdp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NWS Boise (@NWSBoise) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NWSBoise\/status\/1071194766493261824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 8, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>* GOES-17 images shown here are preliminary and non-operational *<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As noted by <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.weather.gov\/boi\/\">NWS Boise<\/a><\/strong>, a pair of mesoscale vortices were apparent over far southeastern Oregon and far southwestern Idaho on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov\/dailywxmap\/index_20181207.html\"><strong>07 December 2018<\/strong><\/a>. A comparison of GOES-17 and GOES-16 <em>(GOES-East)<\/em> &#8220;Red&#8221; Visible (<a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/goes\/OCLOFactSheetPDFs\/ABIQuickGuide_Band02.pdf\"><strong>0.64 \u00b5m<\/strong><\/a>) images <em><strong>(below)<\/strong><\/em> showed that even with the larger GOES-16 viewing angle (or <a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/181207_12utc_kboi_goes16_goes17_zenith_angles_anim.gif\"><strong>satellite zenith angle<\/strong><\/a>), the features could still be seen rather well.<\/p>\n<p><div style=\"width: 651px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a class=\"thumbnail\" href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/181207_goes17_goes16_visible_OR_ID_vortices_anim.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/or_id_vortices_g17-20181207_165218.png\" alt=\"GOES-17 and GOES-16 \" width=\"641\" height=\"370\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">GOES-17 and GOES-16 &#8220;Red&#8221; Visible <em>(0.64 \u00b5m)<\/em> images [click to play animation | <a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/181207_goes17_goes16_visible_OR_ID_vortices_anim.mp4\"><strong>MP4<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/div><div style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/or_id_vortex_topo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/or_id_vortex_topo.png\" alt=\"Topography in feet [click to enlarge]\" width=\"640\" height=\"369\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Topography in feet [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>A look at the local topography <em><strong>(above)<\/strong><\/em> indicated that the low altitude quasi-stationary Oregon vortex was located within the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Owyhee_River\"><strong>Owyhee River<\/strong><\/a> valley, just northeast of the Rome airport KREO. With high pressure centered over the Idaho\/Montana border (<a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/181207_surface_analyses_anim.gif\"><strong>surface analyses<\/strong><\/a>), the low-level southerly\/southeasterly flow seen in a plot of 12 UTC rawinsonde data from Boise, Idaho <em><strong>(below)<\/strong><\/em> was being channeled between the higher terrain surrounding the valley; interactions with that terrain likely caused the Oregon vortex to form. The Idaho vortex was moving toward the northeast &#8212; Boise <a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/181207_12utc_kboi_raob.text\"><strong>rawindsonde data<\/strong><\/a> showed southwest winds at 727 hPa or an altitude of 2700 feet. The 2 vortices wre quite small, having a diameter of only<\/p>\n<p><div style=\"width: 649px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/181207_12utc_kboi_raob.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/181207_12utc_kboi_raob.png\" alt=\"12 UTC rawinsonde data from Boise, Idaho [click to enlarge]\" width=\"639\" height=\"447\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">12 UTC rawinsonde data from Boise, Idaho [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>The pair of vortices likely formed just before or right around sunrise, since there was no signature seen in earlier nighttime MODIS or VIIRS &#8220;Fog\/stratus&#8221; infrared Brightness Temperature Difference (BTD) images <em><strong>{below)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 651px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/181207_modis_viirs_fogBTD_OR_ID_vortex_anim.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/181207_modis_viirs_fogBTD_OR_ID_vortex_anim.gif\" alt=\"MODIS and VIIRS \" width=\"641\" height=\"370\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">MODIS and VIIRS &#8220;Fog\/stratus&#8221; infrared BTD images [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>?Cool vortex in the stratus\/fog between Burns Junction and Jordan Valley, Oregon this afternoon. Another one was also visible in a higher cloud deck near the Owyhee Mountains #orwx #idwx pic.twitter.com\/sL0GfqBUdp \u2014 NWS Boise (@NWSBoise) December 8, 2018 * GOES-17 images shown here are preliminary and non-operational * As noted by NWS Boise, a pair [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":31010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,80,12,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-goes-16","category-goes-17","category-modis","category-viirs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31008"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31016,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31008\/revisions\/31016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}