Satellite Shows Major Winter Storm Hitting the U.S. South

Satellite Shows Major Winter Storm Hitting the U.S. South

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Satellite Shows Major Winter Storm Hitting the U.S. South

Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
Clouds associated with the major winter storm that is bringing wintry precipitation and chilly temperatures to the U.S. south is the focus in an image from NOAA’s GOES-East satellite today, February 12 at 1310 UTC/ 8:10 EST.

Rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow are part of the large front that stretches from eastern Texas to the Carolinas in the Geostationary Operational Environmental satellite or GOES image. NOAA’s weather maps show several areas of low pressure along the frontal boundary. One low pressure is in the northern Gulf of Mexico, while the other is in the Atlantic Ocean, just south of South Carolina. (Insert link: www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/noaa/noaad1.gif).

NOAA’s National Weather Service has been issuing watches and warnings throughout the south that extend along Mid-Atlantic east coast.

The visible cloud and ground snow data in this image was taken from NOAA’s GOES-East satellite. The image was created by the NASA GOES Project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The clouds and fallen snow were overlaid on a true-color image of land and ocean created by data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites.

NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center, or WPC noted on Feb. 11 at 3:59 a.m. EST, "Once the intensifying surface low moves off the Southeast coast and begins its track up the Eastern Seaboard Wednesday night…winter weather will start lifting northward into the northern Mid-Atlantic states."

GOES satellites provide the kind of continuous monitoring necessary for intensive data analysis. Geostationary describes an orbit in which a satellite is always in the same position with respect to the rotating Earth. This allows GOES to hover continuously over one position on Earth’s surface, appearing stationary. As a result, GOES provide a constant vigil for the atmospheric "triggers" for severe weather conditions such as tornadoes, flash floods, hail storms and hurricanes.

For updated information about the storm system, visit NOAA’s WPC website;

www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/

For more information about GOES satellites, visit:

www.goes.noaa.gov/ or goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Rob Gutro
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA image use policy.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

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New Satellite Movie Shows Massive Eastern U.S. Cool Down

Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
Three days of satellite imagery from NOAA’s GOES-East satellite were compiled into an animation that showed the progression of the storm system that drastically changed temperatures in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S. from spring-like warmth to the bitter cold of winter.

A powerful weather system moved from the central U.S. to the east coast from March 11 to March 13 making the shocking temperature change. Over the course of three days, Washington, D.C.’s daytime temperatures plummeted by over 40 degrees and brought wind chills in the teens on March 13.

The National Weather Service reported the high temperature at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. on March 11 hit 72. On March 12, the high topped out at 69 before a powerful cold front moved in. On March 13 at 12 p.m. EDT the airport reported 28F with northwesterly winds gusting to 37 mph. That made the wind chill feel like 13F at lunchtime. That’s a 59 degree difference from the way it felt in the city two days before.

Further north, the storm also brought snow with the gusty winds and generated Blizzard Warnings to Buffalo, N.Y. on March 12 where heavy snow fell totaling 13.8 inches. The National Weather Service in Buffalo reported the highest sustained wind speed was 36 mph, and highest winds gusted to 47 mph. According to the National Weather Service, Buffalo’s snowy winter has dropped 120.6 inches of snow, or 10 feet, 6 inches for the season.

In a short range public discussion, NOAA’s National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center in College Park Md. noted on March 13 at 4:33 a.m. EDT: Conditions will gradually clear out across the Northeast on Thursday as the winter storm that dumped over a foot of snow over interior New England tracks farther up the Eastern Seaboard. Strong northwesterly winds behind the storm will make for a blustery day across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States… but winds should begin to diminish and temperatures will start to rebound once the storm lifts into the Canadian Maritimes on Friday.

NOAA’s GOES-East satellite sits in a fixed orbit in space capturing visible and infrared imagery of all weather over the eastern U.S. and Atlantic Ocean.

Visible and infrared imagery from March 11 at 15:45 UTC/11:45 a.m. EDT to March 13 at 16:01 UTC/12:01 p.m. EDT captured by NOAA’s GOES-East or GOES-13 satellite were compiled into a 21 second video made by NASA/NOAA’s GOES Project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

To create the video and imagery, NASA/NOAA’s GOES Project takes the cloud data from NOAA’s GOES-East satellite and overlays it on a true-color image of land and ocean created by data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, instrument that flies aboard NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites. Together, those data created the entire picture of the storm and show its movement. After the storm system passes, the snow on the ground becomes visible.

GOES satellites provide the kind of continuous monitoring necessary for intensive data analysis. Geostationary describes an orbit in which a satellite is always in the same position with respect to the rotating Earth. This allows GOES to hover continuously over one position on Earth’s surface, appearing stationary. As a result, GOES provide a constant vigil for the atmospheric "triggers" for severe weather conditions such as tornadoes, flash floods, hail storms and hurricanes.

For updated information about the storm system, visit NOAA’s NWS website: www.weather.gov

For more information about GOES satellites, visit: www.goes.noaa.gov/ or goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Rob Gutro
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

NASA image use policy.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

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