The atmosphere was very dry across the US Great Plains Friday behind the storm system that passed through the previous day. In fact, a corridor from North Dakota through Kansas measured TPW <30% of normal, with GOES-16 derived TPW indicating values around 0.1 inches. The dryness was apparent in GOES-16 imagery as well. The 7.34 um “Low-level Water Vapor” IR and 1.38 um “Cirrus” NIR channels are both sensitive to absorption by water vapor in the atmosphere, and therefore typically do not sense surface features. Both channels did on Friday, with the Missouri river standing out across the Dakota’s.

Figure 1: 27 October 2017 GOES-16 7.34 um LL WV (upper left), 1.38 um NIR (upper right), 0.64 um VIS (lower right), TPW (lower left). Full res

-Bill Line, NWS

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