Photo: Groundhog Day blizzard from space
A NOAA satellite captures the February 2011 snowstorm as it blankets the U.S.
By Russell McLendonWed, Feb 02 2011 at 1:40 PM EST
LOST IN THE CLOUD: The U.S. is under there somewhere. (Photo: NOAA/NASA GOES Project)
As a giant snowstorm plowed across the U.S. this week, the GOES-13 weather satellite drifted 22,000 miles overhead, capturing all the snowy chaos in a single dramatic frame. The resulting image, pictured above, reveals just how big the storm became.
Operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA, GOES-13 regularly photographs weather in the Eastern Hemisphere, often producing impressive shots of tropical cyclones and hurricanes. But few storms match the size of this wintry behemoth, which dumped more than a foot of snow in several major U.S. cities on Feb. 1 and 2, including Chicago, Milwaukee and Oklahoma City.
The Groundhog Day blizzard was the seventh major snowstorm to hit North America during the winter of 2010-'11, just the latest in recent trend of so-called "Snowmageddons" or "Snowpocalypses." Many scientists blame the string of big storms on a negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation, a climate pattern that unleashes frigid Arctic air southward while warming the Arctic itself.
The February megastorm wasn't all bad news, though: Since it blocked out the sun on Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil and other weather-predicting groundhogs didn't see their shadows, thus forecasting an early spring.
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Comments
kara
02/02/2011 19:51 PM
i live in the far northen cailf and yet to see much snow it snows all the way around me but not on me and im one who really love to see the snow cover the land we use to get 3 to 4 feet of snow. but are lucky to get 3 to 4 inch were has our snow went? and are we really going to get any this year here my tree are thinking it starting to be spring time and agen we will not get frut off of them if this sun dont stop shineing ....
