A NASA satellite captured a stunning snow-covered Midwest after a polar vortex blast

Satellites in low-Earth orbit have captured sweeping images revealing the extent of the winter storm that painted the northern United States white.

Images taken Jan. 6 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite reveal widespread snow across the Midwestern states. It is enough to fry “Old Winter”.

While all eyes are on the raging wildfires in Southern California, it’s easy to forget that much of the country is still in the throes of a cold front that has blanketed much of the Great Plains, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic with snow, ice and wind. wet snow. Although it should be noted that some of the white in the image above is actually cloud cover; White widths can be separated from each other false color version your description.

Although it is not clear from the visible light images, the source of the snow and freezing cold polar vortex pushed cold Arctic air from the far south into the continental United States, causing temperatures to drop between 5 degrees and 20 degrees Fahrenheit on average from Texas to the Mid-Atlantic. About 1.5 feet (0.46 meters) of snow fell on some parts of the snow-covered landscape – which, of course, is not visible from satellite images.

There are still more than two months of winter and another cold snap may be on the way. National Weather Service Forecast Center has been published A short-term forecast bulletin early Wednesday warned of “moderate to heavy lake-effect snow downwind of the Great Lakes,” a “developing winter storm” that will bring snow, ice and freezing rain over the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley. , as well as snow in the Rockies and the Upper Midwest.

The bulletin also says nothing about the “Extremely Critical Fire Weather Zone” in coastal southern California. fed by the strong, fast-moving Santa Ana north and northeast winds.

There are significant climate events easily visible from space by the way it transforms the landscape—either by turning it into a winter wonderland or by tearing it apart. But either way, NASA satellites (and other agencies’ satellites) will be there to look our way. environment changesand how we respond to that change.