{"id":68035,"date":"2025-12-02T18:59:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T18:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=68035"},"modified":"2025-12-05T19:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T19:36:11","slug":"power-plant-plumes-within-a-supercooled-cloud-layer-over-wisconsin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/68035","title":{"rendered":"Power plant plumes within a supercooled cloud layer over Wisconsin"},"content":{"rendered":"

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5-minute GOES-19 Nighttime Microphysics RGB + daytime True Color RGB images, from 0901-1801 U11TC on 02 December [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East)<\/em> Nighttime Microphysics RGB<\/strong><\/a> + daytime True Color RGB images from the CSPP GeoSphere<\/strong><\/a> site (above)<\/strong><\/em> showed numerous power plant plumes (shades of red) embedded within a supercooled water droplet c\u00a0 loud layer (shades of yellow) that covered much of Wisconsin on 02 December 2025<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The GOES-19 Cloud Top Phase<\/strong><\/a> derived product (below)<\/strong><\/em> confirmed that the cloud layer across the region was predominantly Supercooled (light green). The power plant plumes were classified as Uncertain (black).<\/p>\n

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5-minute GOES-19 Cloud Top Phase derived product, from 0806-1801 UTC on 02 December [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>An animation of GOES-19 Night Fog<\/strong><\/a> brightness temperature difference (BTD) + daytime Near-Infrared “Snow\/Ice” (1.61 \u00b5m<\/strong><\/a>) images (below)<\/strong><\/em> also included plots of METAR surface reports — some of which showed light snow (denoted by the * symbol) in the the vicinity of the larger power plant plumes. These power plant plumes had the effect of eroding the supercooled water droplet cloud layer — via glaciation, initiated by the power plant emission of particles that acted as efficient ice nuclei, which then caused snow to fall from that portion of the cloud.<\/p>\n

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5-minute GOES-19 Night Fog BTD (10.3-3.9 \u00b5m) + daytime Near-Infrared “Snow\/Ice” (1.61 \u00b5m) images, with\/without plots of METAR surface reports, from 0901-1801 UTC on 02 December [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>\n

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GOES-19 Near-Infrared “Snow\/Ice” image at 1451 UTC on 02 December, with\/without a cursor sample of the 1453 UTC Madison WI (KMSN) METAR surface report [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>One notable power plant plume in southern Wisconsin originated in west-central Dane County — and as this plume passed near\/over the Madison airport (KMSN), the observer remarked that snow began at 1400 UTC and ended at 1451 UTC (above)<\/strong><\/em>. The visibility at the 1453 UTC report time had improved to 8 statute miles — while the visibility at the Middleton airport, located just SW of KMSN, was only 4 statute miles at that time (Middleton is an AWOS site, which does not report precipitation type).<\/p>\n

3 hours later, KMSN was reporting light snow with a visibility of 3 statute miles as the same power plant plume was passing near\/over the airport (below)<\/strong><\/em> — while the visibility at Middleton was 2-1\/2 statute miles (where it was also likely snowing). During the 1400-1900 UTC (0800-1300 CST) time period, intermittent reductions in visibility due to light snow were apparent in UW-AOS<\/strong><\/a> rooftop cameras facing north<\/strong><\/a> and northwest<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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GOES-19 Near-Infrared “Snow\/Ice” image at 1751 UTC on 02 December, with\/without a cursor sample of the 1753 UTC Madison WI (KMSN) METAR surface report [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>A closer view of the power plant plumes originating in Dane County is shown in a comparison of Suomi-NPP VIIRS True Color RGB and False Color RGB images valid at 1820 UTC, visualized using RealEarth<\/strong><\/a> (below)<\/strong><\/em>. By that time, the leading edge of the Dane County plume had traveled northeastward over Columbia County; plumes from the Columbia Energy Center<\/strong><\/a> near Portage were also apparent.<\/p>\n

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Suomi-NPP VIIRS True Color RGB and False Color RGB images valid at 1820 UTC on 02 December — with plots of surface observations and either county outlines or labels [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>\n

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In northern Wisconsin, during the overnight hours a large power plant plume in Marathon County — likely the Weston Power Plant<\/strong><\/a>, located south of Wausau — was producing enough light snow to reduce the visibility to 1 mile at Wausau (KAUW), as seen in the GOES-19 0901 UTC Night Fog BTD image (below)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

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GOES-19 Night Fog BTD image at 0901 UTC on 02 December, with a red box highlighting the Wausau WI (KAUW) METAR surface observation [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>Since the Moon was in the Waxing Gibbous phase (at 93% of Full), it provided ample nighttime illumination to reveal that the power plant plume originating near Wausau was causing enough light snow to fall from the supercooled cloud layer that a hole (or at least a significant cloud thinning) had developed — as seen in VIIRS Day\/Night Band imagery from NOAA-21 and Suomi-NPP (below)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

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GOES-19 Night Fog BTD and NOAA-21 VIIRS Day\/Night Band (0.7 \u00b5m) images at 0806 UTC on 02 December [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>\n

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GOES-19 Night Fog BTD and Suomi-NPP VIIRS Day\/Night Band (0.7 \u00b5m) images at 0836 UTC on 02 December [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>During the subsequent daytime hours, the Marathon County power plant plume was drifting far enough northeastward to produce light snow that reduced the visibility to 3 statute miles at Antigo (KAIG) (below)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

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GOES-19 Near-Infrared “Snow\/Ice” image at 1536 UTC on 02 December, with\/without a cursor sample of the 1535 UTC Antigo WI (KAIG) METAR surface report [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>\n

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5-minute GOES-19 “Red” Visible images (0.64 \u00b5m, left) and Near-Infrared “Snow\/Ice” images (1.61 \u00b5m, right), from 1316-1601 UTC on 02 December [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>As an aside, another interesting feature seen in the imagery was a packet of cloud-top waves associated with a bore that was moving inland (westward) across east-central Wisconsin during the morning hours (above)<\/strong><\/em>. This bore had no influence on surface wind direction, indicating that the feature was not surface-based.<\/p>\n

A plot of rawinsonde data from nearby Green Bay, Wisconsin at 1800 UTC (below)<\/strong><\/em> showed a pronounced temperature inversion from 948-900 hPa (1038-2058 ft) — within which the bore was likely being ducted as it propagated westward.<\/p>\n

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Plot of rawinsonde data from Green Bay, Wisconsin at 1800 UTC on 02 December [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Nighttime Microphysics RGB + daytime True Color RGB images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (above) showed numerous power plant plumes (shades of red) embedded within a supercooled water droplet c\u00a0 loud layer (shades of yellow) that covered much of Wisconsin on 02 December 2025. The GOES-19 Cloud Top Phase derived […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":68036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159,131,53,45,49,48,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-goes-19","category-noaa-21","category-real-earth","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images","category-suomi_npp","category-viirs","category-winter-weather"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68035","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=68035"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68089,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68035\/revisions\/68089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}