Envirocast® On-Line Feature of the Week -- December 4, 2006

Midwest Snowstorm

The images in this Envirocast® On-Line were taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard NASA's Aqua satellite on November 22 and December 4, 2006. They show the U.S. Midwest before and after the snow storm.

Snow Storm Hit U.S. Midwest

The above MODIS images are from November 22 and December 4. They show the U.S. Midwest before and after the recent snow storm. A belt of snow cover can be easily seen on the December 4 image, from the west coast of Lake Michigan through the center of Illinois and Missouri states.

In visible images (true color), it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between clouds and snow on the ground (under mostly clear skies). Of course, if you have access to a sequence of visible images, clouds will typically move in time while snow cover won't. On the other hand, while looking at a single visible image, meteorologists can determine whether a blotch of white is snow cover by identifying rivers or lakes, which early in the cold season, are ice- and snow-free and therefore appear as dark fingers amidst white snow cover.  Snow cover ends abruptly at the coastlines.

In the false color images, clouds are white, water is black, snow cover is in aqua color and vegetation is green.

 

Chicago Area

 

 

St. Louis Area

 

Kansas City Area

Environmental Impacts:

  • The snow and ice storm that blew through the Midwest on Thursday, November 30 is being blamed for 19 deaths so far.  Most deaths have occurred due to the massive power outages in the states of Missouri and Illinois.

  • Chicago received 6.2 inches of snow, and many areas of Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri got more than a foot.

  • Missouri declared a state of emergency, and Kansas declared disaster emergency for 27 counties.

  • The storm initially left 510,000 homes without power on Friday.  That number was reduced to 350,000 by Sunday afternoon.

  • The power outages are being caused by frozen tree limbs falling onto electrical wires.  Restoring the power is a slow process because of the freezing cold conditions.

  • Many people have sought warmth at local Red Cross shelters, but many others are stuck in their homes with high temperatures in the 20’s (degrees Fahrenheit).

  • The Missouri National Guard has been going door to door to make sure that people are safe in their homes.

Supplementary Material:

NASA's AQUA Satellite:

  • Aqua, Latin for water, is a NASA Earth Science satellite mission collecting about the Earth's water cycle, including evaporation from the oceans, water vapor in the atmosphere, clouds, precipitation, soil moisture, sea ice, land ice, and snow cover on the land and ice. The Aqua spacecraft (formally known as EOS-PM) was successfully launched on May 4, 2002 at the Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in Lompoc, California. t is flying at an altitude of 705 km (438 miles) observing the Earth, and the life expectancy is 6 years. [Aqua's Orbit], [Animation of MODIS Observing the Earth]

  • Aqua passes south to north over the equator in the afternoon, and thus it passes over us at the same local time every day, approximately 1:30 p.m.

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