VISIT: Meteorological Interpretation Blog

https://www.wunderground.com/article/news/news/2023-03-02-tornado-severe-weather-dallas-texas-louisiana-arkansas-oklahoma Product Links: ALPW ALPW Percentiles ALPW vapor transport

By Dan Bikos and Sheldon Kusselson Hurricane Fiona underwent a transition from a tropical cyclone to an extra-tropical cyclone on 23-24 September 2022.  The resulting extra-tropical cyclone was very intense and led to significant storm surge, wind damage and heavy rain in southeast Canada centered on Nova Scotia. The Advected Layer Precipitable Water loop does an Continue Reading

By Jorel Torres, Dan Bikos and Ed Szoke A line of severe storms moved through the southern plains on 4 May 2020, producing numerous hail and wind reports across the region (accessed via SPC). The GOES-16 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB is shown below, overlaid onto the GOES-16 CAPE product from 17Z, 4 May 2020 Continue Reading

On 31 October 2019 a very dry airmass existed over the southwest US.  To illustrate the dry airmass, consider the sounding from Albuquerque, NM with a precipitable water amount of 0.05″ (1.27 mm): The synoptic scale pattern was characterized by above normal PW in the east ahead of a trough, with below normal PW in Continue Reading

By Dan Bikos and Lewis Grasso During the afternoon of 30 April 2019, a dryline mixed eastward from New Mexico into the Texas panhandle, as seen in this GOES-16 visible loop with METARs overlaid: http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/templates/loop_directory.asp?data_folder=training/visit/loops/30apr19/vis_metars&loop_speed_ms=60 Thunderstorms initiate along various segments of the dryline during the animation. The moisture gradient is substantial across the dryline so Continue Reading

By Louie Grasso and Dan Bikos On the day of 17 April 2019 observations indicated a significant upper-level trough over the southwest portions of the US.  As is typical with this type of synoptic setup, southwesterly flow ahead of the trough existed over northern Mexico extending northeastward into Texas.  In addition, this synoptic setup is Continue Reading

Monitoring severe weather during the nighttime can be challenging since GOES-16/17 is limited to infrared imagery during the overnight hours. In complement to geostationary data sets, polar-orbiting satellite data can be utilized, specifically the Near-Constant Contrast (NCC) product. For unfamiliar readers, NCC is a derived product of the Day/Night Band (DNB) that utilizes a sun/moon reflectance Continue Reading

Popocatépetl Volcano erupted overnight, spewing volcanic ash emissions, from 0200-1600UTC, 15 February 2019. Geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites observed this atmospheric phenomenon from 00-16 UTC, 15 February 2019. GOES-16 3.9um  A hot spot (i.e. white, warm brightness temperature) is produced from the volcanic eruption, along with its ash plume (i.e. elongated, cooler, black, brightness temperatures). Notice Continue Reading

Observing sea surface temperatures (SSTs) from satellite is an important aspect in weather forecasting for a variety of applications. Applications consist of (but not limited to) forecasting hurricane intensity, sea fog, and convection over the oceans. But remember, oceans are vast, making up ~70% of the Earth’s surface, and more importantly, oceans are remote, where Continue Reading

A cold arctic air mass moved into the Upper Midwest the past two days (29-30 September 2019), providing extreme cold temperatures for several states, including North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. Along with high winds, the calculated, respective, wind chills are even lower. Satellite imagery, comprised of polar-orbiting and geostationary data, along Continue Reading