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Tuesday, June 19

What is all of this white on the satellite?


The visible satellite, shown here, basically takes a "photo" of the clouds. These, in fact, are some high cloud tops associated with a batch of severe thunderstorms over the Western Southern Tier of New York. These thunderstorms produced damaging wind and heavy rain across Western New York.

Note: The whiter the clouds, the higher the tops, the gray clouds represent lower clouds.

Jonathan Myers

3 comments:

  1. Which clouds carry more rain, the higher or lower ones? Or doesn't it matter? I guess my main question is: why do you need to know the difference between higher and lower clouds?

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  2. Why didn't we see Jonathan at the weather wall today?

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  3. You need to know the difference because, typically, it is the highest-topped clouds (that span from lower portions of the atmosphere, all the way up into the higher reaches of the atmosphere) that have the greatest vertical motion within them, and therefore are the most moisture-rich and produce the most rain for us here on the ground. The lower clouds usually produce lesser amounts of rain.

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