HRRR versus HRRR-Experimental: Vegetation Type and Water Area

Changes in land use between HRRRv2 (current operational version) and HRRRv3 (Experimental)

 There is no change in the elevation, but some lakes have been added. The Great Salt Lake has been modified in HRRRv3

Snow cover

We finally had a sunny day in Utah (though it is quite smoggy). Now we can see the extent of the snow cover in Utah.

NOAA Twin Otter in Utah this week

The NOAA Twin Otter airplane is in Utah this week sampling air pollution in northern Utah including Cache, Salt Lake, and Utah counties. More information about the study can be found here: https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/csd/groups/csd7/measurements/2017uwfps/

MesoWest: Celebrating 20 years of observations

This year, MesoWest celebrates 20 years of collecting, archive, and disseminating environmental data.

https://mesowest.org/20/

Go on a cruise

My brother and his wife went on a cruise last week. Here is a comparison of air temperature in Logan, Utah and Key West, Florida during their cruise.

Cold Morning

Snapshot of temperatures (F) around the Great Salt Lake at 8:30 AM local time.

(The overnight temperature at some of these sites was colder)

24 Hour Low Temperatures:

Source: preview.weather.gov/edd

HRRR Sea Surface Temperatures fixed after update

The HRRR was updated in late October which affected the SST assimilation. This caused the Great Salt Lake and all other sea surface temperatures to be stuck. This was fixed in late December. Below you can see the Great Salt Lake surface temperatures at the Buoy in the HRRR (blue) and observed (red). The rapid drop in SST is a result of the fix which brought lake temperatures closer to it's actual temperature.

For more information, see the announcement here:
http://ruc.noaa.gov/forum/f2/Welcome.cgi/rev/2519

Lots of snow

Six new inches of snow overnight in Spanish Fork. We shoveled last night, but we've got more to shovel today.