NOAA's GOES-East weather satellite had a surprise visitor on the visible channel yesterday afternoon: the moon. Say cheese!
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Meteorologists and weather enthusiasts are in for a treat over the next several weeks as one of the GOES weather satellites (GOES 14 to be exact) has been placed in "Super-Rapid Scan Mode". This means that satellite pictures will be taken once every minute, compared to the 15-30 minute scans that we are normally presented with. The trick is, the special scan's won't cover the entire nation or the entire Northern Hemisphere. Various "sectors" will be chosen for this special scanning mode based on ongoing and forecast weather conditions, etc. For example, today the focus is on the Southeast, and you can see a beautiful one-minute frequency visible satellite loop (one of the frames is shown above) by going to this link. The schedule for tomorrow showss that the super rapid scan imagery will be focused on now Tropical Storm Helene (shown as "Tropical Invest" on the schedule). It will be awesome watching a tropical system with 1 minute satellite intervals (albeit so close to land). The Super Rapid Scan Mode is scheduled to continue on "select days" through October 31st. For more information see this post on the CIMMS blog page.
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Update, 8pm CST: The following photo was taken about the same time as the visible satellite image in the original post. It was taken by Blake Brown at News9 in Oklahoma City. Look at the wall of dust, mixed with rain as the line of storms and dust cloud moved through the city! Note the rainbow thrown in at the lower left hand corner:
What an awesome shot! It reminds me of what I saw when I opened up the roof hatch at KAKE-TV in Wichita, KS on June 19, 1990. The wall of dust looked very similar as it advanced toward us. Too bad digital cameras weren't around back then, in the stone ages...
-----------------------------------Original Post Below:
Lets play a game of meteorological "Where's Waldo..."
Can you see the large plume of dust on the visible satellite image above?
The satellite picture was taken about 5 minutes ago...
Here's a hint: Look closely over southwest Oklahoma and northwest Texas...
Sometimes right before sunset you can pick out some things on visible satellite imagery that you can't always see as clearly during broad daylight (due to the angle of the sun, ground temperatures, etc). The visible image that I just took a snapshot of above is one such example.
Look at the tips of the yellow arrows over east-central New Mexico and west-central Texas. The grayish-white behind the arrow tips is the leading edge of a wall of dust that is advancing Southward, immediately behind the cold front. Gusty N-NW winds of 40-50 mph are driving the dust cloud...which will continue to spread Southward across the region during the next couple of hours.
The image below was taken outside of the NWS office in Lubbock, showing the large wall of dust advancing toward the complex:
An impressive video was also posted by a homeowner in a residential area as the massive wall of dust was approaching the subdivision:
With the record setting drought continuing across the region, there is little wonder why a front like this has plenty of dust to pick up. I have a feeling we'll be seeing scenes like this time and time again this fall and winter across west Texas and eastern New Mexico.
