Images
February 26, 2025 - Snow in Virginia and North Carolina
False Color Image
True Color Image
Tweet
In mid-February 2025, residents of the U.S. states of Maryland and Pennsylvania were bracing for a major winter storm, which some forecasters expected to dump 8 inches (20 cm) of snow in parts of each state. By February 18, the large storm showed signs of striking further south, and the National Weather Service issued Winter Storm Warnings from Kansas and Oklahoma to Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, and the southern tip of Maryland.
As the storm passed off the Atlantic coast on February 19-20, it became a winter storm of historic proportions in Virginia, dropping 16.8 inches (42.6) at Norfolk International Airport, according to local media. That puts it in the top ten list for one-day snowfall for that location and brings the winter of 2025 into the eighth-snowiest year on record. North Carolina took a heavy hit as well, with the highest total reported at 4.5 inches (11.4 cm) in Robersonville, a town located in an inner coastal agricultural region between the Roanoke and Tar Rivers. The winter weather brought traffic snarls and school closures in both states.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a false-color image of snow across coastal Virginia and North Carolina on February 21, the day the skies cleared. This is paired with the same image processed as a true-color image, which uses MODIS bands 4, 3, and 1 to show the region as would be seen with our eyes. In contrast, the false-color image uses bands 7, 2, and 1 to highlight snow, which looks electric blue, and to separate it from vegetation (bright green), open land (tan), liquid water (dark blue), and clouds (white).
Both images show widespread snow, with the most snow lying across Virginia (north), including much of the Outer Banks, the long stretch of narrow barrier islands that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean. The major waterways visible, from north to south, are the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the James River, the Albemarle Sound (which is fed by the Roanoke River), the Pamlico Sound and the Pamlico River.
The city of Norfolk sits buried in snow close to where the James River meets the Chesapeake Bay. Due east and on the coast, Virginia Beach is also thoroughly coated in fresh snow. Southwest of Norfolk, an expanse of green marks the relatively warm and moist Great Dismal Swap, which has melted newly fallen snow. The boundary line between Virginia (north) and North Carolina (south) runs south of the round lake in the center of Great Dismal Swamp.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 2/21/2025
Resolutions:
1km (68.3 KB), 500m (149.5 KB), 250m (217.6 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
False Color Image True Color Image
In mid-February 2025, residents of the U.S. states of Maryland and Pennsylvania were bracing for a major winter storm, which some forecasters expected to dump 8 inches (20 cm) of snow in parts of each state. By February 18, the large storm showed signs of striking further south, and the National Weather Service issued Winter Storm Warnings from Kansas and Oklahoma to Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, and the southern tip of Maryland.
As the storm passed off the Atlantic coast on February 19-20, it became a winter storm of historic proportions in Virginia, dropping 16.8 inches (42.6) at Norfolk International Airport, according to local media. That puts it in the top ten list for one-day snowfall for that location and brings the winter of 2025 into the eighth-snowiest year on record. North Carolina took a heavy hit as well, with the highest total reported at 4.5 inches (11.4 cm) in Robersonville, a town located in an inner coastal agricultural region between the Roanoke and Tar Rivers. The winter weather brought traffic snarls and school closures in both states.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a false-color image of snow across coastal Virginia and North Carolina on February 21, the day the skies cleared. This is paired with the same image processed as a true-color image, which uses MODIS bands 4, 3, and 1 to show the region as would be seen with our eyes. In contrast, the false-color image uses bands 7, 2, and 1 to highlight snow, which looks electric blue, and to separate it from vegetation (bright green), open land (tan), liquid water (dark blue), and clouds (white).
Both images show widespread snow, with the most snow lying across Virginia (north), including much of the Outer Banks, the long stretch of narrow barrier islands that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean. The major waterways visible, from north to south, are the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the James River, the Albemarle Sound (which is fed by the Roanoke River), the Pamlico Sound and the Pamlico River.
The city of Norfolk sits buried in snow close to where the James River meets the Chesapeake Bay. Due east and on the coast, Virginia Beach is also thoroughly coated in fresh snow. Southwest of Norfolk, an expanse of green marks the relatively warm and moist Great Dismal Swap, which has melted newly fallen snow. The boundary line between Virginia (north) and North Carolina (south) runs south of the round lake in the center of Great Dismal Swamp.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 2/21/2025
Resolutions:
1km (68.3 KB), 500m (149.5 KB), 250m (217.6 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
