Back-to-Back Pacific Storms to Impact the West Coast; Heavy Snow in the Central Appalachians

Back-to-back powerful Pacific storm systems to impact the Pacific Northwest and northern California through the end of this week with heavy rain, flooding, strong winds, and higher elevation mountain snow. A strong, long-duration atmospheric river will accompany the Pacific storms, bringing excessive rainfall and flash flooding to southwest Oregon and northwest California through the week. Read More >

The combination of very strong southerly winds, low relative humidity, unseasonably warm temperatures, and tinder dry fuels led to numerous grass fires across central and eastern South Dakota on October 5-6, 2011.

Figure 1 below is a visible satellite picture from shortly after 2pm CDT (1901UTC) on Wednesday, October 5th. The red circles denote locations where grass fires were observed on satellite data. The streaks of white within the red circles are smoke plumes being pushed from south to north by the prevailing southerly winds. The other white areas (generally west of the Missouri River/Lake Oahe) are normal clouds - not smoke plumes.

Figure 1:

Figure 2 below is a very high resolution (250 meter) "false color" satellite imagery from the MODIS satellite valid from Friday afternoon, October 7th. The streaks of brown within the red circles are burn scars from a few of the larger prairie fires. The most significant burn scar is associated with the Okreek fire, which grew to over 17,500 acres in size near Mission, SD.

Figure 2:

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Back-to-Back Pacific Storms to Impact the West Coast; Heavy Snow in the Central Appalachians

Burn Scars from Oct 5-6th, 2011 Fires Evident on Satellite Imagery