NASA: It is happening now - Está sucediendo ahora - 27-07-10 - Severe Storms Strike U.S. East Coast - Dust Storm over the Red Sea - Dust off Western Africa

Severe Storms Strike U.S. East Coast

One of the most destructive storms in years struck Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area on July 25, 2010. Strong winds downed trees and power lines, leaving hundreds of thousands of residents without power, stopping elevators, and darkening malls and movie theaters. Falling trees killed at least two people. The following morning, crews were working furiously to restore power to homes, traffic lights, and even a water treatment plant.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)—built and launched by NASA, and operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—captured a series of images of the storm activity on July 25, 2010. This image is a composite of clouds from GOES merged with background data of the land surface from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The animation shows a series of thunderstorms coalescing as the fast-moving front travels from the Appalachians toward the Mid-Atlantic. By 4:15 p.m. Eastern Daylight Savings Time, the strongest thunderstorms were directly over Washington, D.C.

The violent storms followed on the heels of relentless heat for the U.S. East Coast. “The East Coast has been baking for weeks,” explains George Huffman, a research meteorologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “It’s been hot and muggy, with lots of moisture in the air, and that stuff has been trapped under a high-pressure system. Storms had been steering around the edges of that system. In fact, the flight that experienced so much turbulence last week was along the edge of that high pressure.”

Forecasts had raised the possibility of severe weather for the East Coast on July 25, and Huffman watched the storm system as it traveled over Ohio and Pennsylvania, remaining intact as it moved. “You tend not to see well-organized lines of thunderstorms at 9:00 a.m.,” he says. But the storm system coming from the west did not dissipate, even in the mid-morning hours. “The large-scale pattern shifted, allowing the high pressure to our northwest, which is cooler and drier, to push toward the southeast. That push was strong enough to organize the squall lines that fed off of our hot, muggy conditions,” he explains. “As storms come across the mountains toward the coastal plain, they have three options: hang together, get stronger, or get weaker. This storm system got stronger.”

1. References

2. Lee, S., McPhate, M., Weil, M. (2010, July 26). Hundreds of thousands still without power; fast-moving storm kills two. The Washington Post. Accessed July 26, 2010.
3. Linthicum, K. (2010, July 21). Shaken by severe turbulence, LAX-bound plane diverts to Denver; two dozen injured. L.A. Now. Los Angeles Times. Accessed July 26, 2010.
4. Samenow , J. (2010, July 25). Severe thunderstorms sliding south. Capital Weather Gang. The Washington Post. Accessed July 26, 2010.

Image courtesy NOAA-NASA GOES Project. Animation by Robert Simmon. Caption by Michon Scott and Robert Simmon with information provided by George Huffman, Science Systems and Applications, Inc. at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Instrument: 

GOES

Dust Storm over the Red Sea

Multiple dust plumes blew eastward across the Red Sea in late July 2010. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on July 24, 2010. Along the eastern edge of the Red Sea, some of the dust forms wave patterns. Over the Arabian Peninsula, clouds fringe the eastern edge of a giant veil of dust. East of the clouds, skies are clear.

Along the African coast, some of the smaller, linear plumes in the south may have arisen from sediments near the shore, especially the plumes originating in southern Sudan. The wide, opaque plume in the north, however, may have arisen farther inland, perhaps from sand seas in the Sahara.

NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Michon Scott.

Instrument: 

Terra - MODIS

Dust off Western Africa

A plume of Saharan dust spanning hundreds of kilometers hovered over the eastern Atlantic Ocean in late July 2010. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on July 25, 2010.

No obvious source points for the dust appear near the coast. The dust likely arose far inland, carried to the sea by the Saharan Air Layer—a hot, dry, dusty air mass that forms over the Sahara and travels over the Atlantic Ocean about every three to five days. This dust plume narrowly misses the Canary Islands in the north and Cape Verde in the south—two island chains regularly dusted with the Saharan sands. The plume’s trajectory, however, may carry some dust toward Cape Verde.

In the wake of the Canary Islands (just off the top edge of the image), vortices form in the clouds. The swirling paisley patterns follow a northeast-southwest path roughly parallel to that of the dust plume.

1. Reference

2. Dunion, J. (2010, March 17). What is the Saharan Air Layer? Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Accessed June 26, 2010.

NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Michon Scott.

Instrument: 

Terra - MODIS

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NASA:

It is happening now - Está sucediendo ahora

27-07-10

Severe Storms Strike U.S. East Coast

Dust Storm over the Red Sea

Dust off Western Africa