![](\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/02\/G19_WV_WX1_WINTER_STORM_02FEB2026_loop_GOES-19_2026030_180118_2026032_180118.gif\")
<\/a>5-minute GOES-19 Mid-level Water Vapor images with hourly surface weather type plotted in red (R=rain, S=snow, BS=blowing snow, ZR=freezing rain, L=drizzle, F=fog), from 1801 UTC on 30 January to 1801 UTC on 01 February [click to play animated GIF | MP4<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/div>48 hours of 5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East)<\/em> Water Vapor images that included hourly plots of surface weather type (above)<\/strong><\/em> showed the development of a winter storm that produced up to 19.5″ of snowfall and wind gusts as high as 64 mph in eastern North Carolina (storm summary<\/strong><\/a>) — and even some light snow in far northern Florida — from 30 January<\/strong><\/a> to 01 February 2026<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n A GOES-19 Mesoscale Domain Sector provided 1-minute imagery of this winter storm — and a closer view centered over eastern North Carolina using Water Vapor and Infrared imagery (below)<\/em><\/strong> depicted the formation of west-to-east oriented mesoscale cloud bands which enhanced snowfall rates as they moved northward across eastern North Carolina to southeastern Virginia.<\/p>\n 1-minute GOES-19 Water Vapor images (left) and Infrared images (right), with hourly plots of surface weather type [click to play animated GIF | MP4<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/div>As clouds cleared after the storm moved offshore, GOES-19 True Color RGB images from the CSPP GeoSphere<\/strong><\/a> site (below)<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0showed that some of the fresh snow cover across Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina began to melt during the day on 01 February.<\/p>\n 5-minute GOES-19 True Color RGB images, from 1301-2156 UTC on 01 February [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>As the low pressure system moved off the US East Coast and rapidly intensified to Hurricane Force<\/strong><\/a>, hazy areas seen in GOES-19 True Color RGB images (below)<\/strong><\/em> represented enhanced solar reflection off of high waves and sea spray (where strong surface winds were present to the east and southeast of the low center, behind its cold front).<\/p>\n 5-minute GOES-19 True Color RGB images, from 1201-2056 UTC on 01 February [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>GOES-19 Visible images with plots of Derived Motion Winds<\/strong><\/a> (DMW) (below)<\/strong><\/em> depicted a large swath of DMW speeds >50 kts (yellow) east and southeast of the Hurricane Force low center. GLM<\/strong><\/a> Flash Extent Density also showed that lightning activity was associated with areas of convection near and northeast of the low center.<\/p>\n 5-minute GOES-19 Visible images with an overlay of Derived Motion Wind barbs and GLM Flash Extent Density, from 1246-2101 UTC on 01 February [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>DMW speeds were as high as 82 kts in the region of the hazy signature east of the low\u00a0 pressure center (below)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n GOES-19 Visible image at 1801 UTC on 01 February, with an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density and a cursor sample of Derived Motion Winds east of the low pressure center [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>\n GOES-19 Visible image at 2001 UTC on 01 February, with an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density and a cursor sample of Derived Motion Winds east of the low pressure center [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>Altimeter significant wave height values east of the Hurricane Force low were as high as 46.13 ft derived from SWOT<\/strong><\/a> at 2130 UTC and 50.47 ft derived from AltiKa<\/strong><\/a> at 2239 UTC on 01 February (below)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n Significant wave height values derived from SWOT and AltiKa on 01 February<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 48 hours of 5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Water Vapor images that included hourly plots of surface weather type (above) showed the development of a winter storm that produced up to 19.5″ of snowfall and wind gusts as high as 64 mph in eastern North Carolina (storm summary) — and even some light snow in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":68736,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152,76,159,30,8,25,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-altimetry","category-glm","category-goes-19","category-lightning","category-marine-weather","category-satellite-winds","category-winter-weather"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68725","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=68725"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68781,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68725\/revisions\/68781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>