CIMSS: Record Heat and Los Alamos Fire
Posted by JAC on 6/29/2011, 8:21 am




Record heat was experienced across parts of the Texas and Oklahoma panhandle regions and southwestern Kansas on 26 June 2011 - all-time record high temperatures in Texas included 117F at Childress (record tied), 113F at Borger, 111F at Amarillo, and 110F at Dalhart; in Oklahoma, 113F at Gage; and in Kansas 110F at Dodge City. An AWIPS image of the MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) product in the late morning at 16:52 UTC or 11:52 am local time (above) showed a large area exhibiting LST values of 125-130F (darker red color enhancement) at that time (although shelter air temperatures 5 feet above the surface were only in the 102F to 104F range).

GOES-13 3.9 m shortwave IR images (below) showed how after sunset the areas with drier air (lower dew points) tended to cool off faster than adjacent areas with more moisture in the air (higher dew points).






Farther to the west, a large wildfire was burning near Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. A sequence of daytime GOES-13 0.63 m visible channel images followed by night-time GOES-13 3.9 m shortwave IR images (below) revealed a very large smoke plume spreading northeastward during the day on 26 June, along with a very large fire "hot spot" (black to yellow pixels) on the shortwave IR images. The large smoke plume was still apparent on the first few visible images on the next morning (27 June).







A comparison of 1-km resolution POES AVHRR 0.63 m visible channel and 3.74 m shortwave IR channel images (below) showed a better view of the fire hot spot and associated smoke plume at 01:32 UTC.










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Fire at Los Alamos National Lab - JAC, 6/28/2011, 6:39 am
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