{"id":44698,"date":"2022-02-18T22:49:54","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T22:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=44698"},"modified":"2022-02-25T15:38:05","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T15:38:05","slug":"snow-squall-warnings-over-duluth-minnesota-and-northwestern-wisconsin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/44698","title":{"rendered":"Snow Squall Warnings over Duluth Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
GOES-16 Day Cloud Phase Distinction 1731 – 2046 UTC on 18 February 2022 (Click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The animation above, of the Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB, shows bands of snow showers\/squalls rotating cyclonically through northern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, to the south of a strong cyclone over northern Minnesota and northwestern Ontario (link to map<\/a> from 1800 UTC on 18 February). The tops of these clouds are fairly low — in the RGB they have a periwinkle color in contrast to the orange\/red color of the higher cirrus to the south. The RGB also allows for good contrast between the clouds and the clear snow-covered grounds (with greenish tones) to the west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A potency of the upper air system supporting the surface cyclone is highlighted in the Ozone Anomaly fields from gridded NUCAPS data, shown below. Anomalies of 120-140 dobson Units are present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
NUCAPS estimates of Ozone Anomaly at 1730 and 1930 UTC on 18 February 2022 (Click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The National Weather Service in Duluth MN<\/a> issued a series of Snow Squall Warnings; the first one, valid until 1945 UTC, is shown below (taken from this tweet<\/a>); sequential tweeted Warnings are here<\/a> (valid until 2015 UTC), here<\/a> (valid until 2100 UTC), here<\/a> (valid until 2145 UTC) and here<\/a> (valid until 2215 UTC). (Note, WFO ARX — in Lacrosse, WI, is issuing Snow Squall warnings for this system as well!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
NWS Duluth Graphic of snow squall warning for 18 February 2022, for the time period ending 1945 UTC (Click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Three radars for this event are shown below: 1907, 1937 and 2007 UTC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Radar Reflectivity at 1907, 1937 and 2007 UTC on 18 February 2022 (Click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

VIIRS imagery (available from the CIMSS LDM feed) over the Duluth Area afforded a high-resolution view of this event. The toggles below show True and False Color imagery at 1838 UTC (from Suomi NPP) and at 1929 UTC (from NOAA-20) At 1838 UTC, the clouds producing the snow — between Moose Lake and Floodwood — do not stand out. They are much more noticeable in the 1929 UTC image, southeast of Duluth and northwest of Solon Springs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
True and False Color imagery, Suomi-NPP VIIRS, 1838 UTC on 18 February 2022 (Click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
True and False Color imagery, NOAA-20 VIIRS, 1929 UTC on 18 February 2022 (Click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

What was the effect on visibility? That is shown in the animation below with a 10-minute time step. Note how Duluth goes from southwesterly winds with light snow and 5- to 10- mile visibility to strong northwest winds (gusts to 45 knots) and reduced visibilities as the squall moves through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
GOES-16 Day Cloud Phase Distinction 1731 – 2041 UTC on 18 February 2022 along with surface observations (Click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

As this front moved through southern Wisconsin, it generated lightning, as shown in the animation below (from this website<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
GLM Flash Extent Density overlain on top of nighttime GeoColor, 2236 18 February – 0126 UTC 19 February 2022 (Click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The animation above, of the Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB, shows bands of snow showers\/squalls rotating cyclonically through northern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, to the south of a strong cyclone over northern Minnesota and northwestern Ontario (link to map from 1800 UTC on 18 February). The tops of these clouds are fairly low — in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":44711,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,76,74,78,83,49,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-interpretation","category-glm","category-goes-16","category-noaa-20","category-nucaps","category-suomi_npp","category-viirs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44698","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\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44698"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44803,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44698\/revisions\/44803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}