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February 8, 2011 - Snow in southcentral United States
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A mid-winter snowstorm blasted across the southcentral United States in early February, 2011, dropping up to seven inches of fresh snow around Dallas, Texas and bringing a wintery mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain across a southerly swath from Brownsville, Texas to Lake Charles, Louisiana. At the northwest fringe of the storm, Oklahoma City was dusted with light snow. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite captured this true-color image on February 5, 2011.
Cold temperatures joined the snow and ice to turn highways into ribbons of white and create chaos for travelers and residents. On February 4th, the day most of the snow fell, the overnight lows in Dallas dipped to 19°F and the daytime high reached only 27°F and schoolchildren stayed home for the fourth straight day. In Houston, the state's largest district with more than 200,000 students, schools were also closed. About 120 flights were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Love Field, home to Southwest Airlines, closed completely as crews worked to clear snow from the runways.
In this image, the city of Houston, Texas can easily be seen in the lower right corner of the image as a gray smudge with radiating gray streaks. To the west, San Antonio can be seen as a smaller gray circle. Although the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is larger than either city and can normally be easily distinguished from space, the fresh snowfall over the buildings and roads almost completely obscure it from view. The metroplex appears as a faintly less-white area between several lakes, lying south of the middle of the Red River as it forms the boundary of Oklahoma and Texas. A small blue oval marks White Rock Lake, found in urban Dallas.
Snowfall can be expected in the Dallas-Fort Worth region 2-3 days out of the year and accumulation is usually seen in at least once every winter, bringing an annual average snowfall of 2.5 inches. In most parts of the city, the snowfall from this storm was more than double the expected yearly average.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 2/5/2011
Resolutions:
1km ( B), 500m ( B), 250m ( B)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
A mid-winter snowstorm blasted across the southcentral United States in early February, 2011, dropping up to seven inches of fresh snow around Dallas, Texas and bringing a wintery mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain across a southerly swath from Brownsville, Texas to Lake Charles, Louisiana. At the northwest fringe of the storm, Oklahoma City was dusted with light snow. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite captured this true-color image on February 5, 2011.
Cold temperatures joined the snow and ice to turn highways into ribbons of white and create chaos for travelers and residents. On February 4th, the day most of the snow fell, the overnight lows in Dallas dipped to 19°F and the daytime high reached only 27°F and schoolchildren stayed home for the fourth straight day. In Houston, the state's largest district with more than 200,000 students, schools were also closed. About 120 flights were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Love Field, home to Southwest Airlines, closed completely as crews worked to clear snow from the runways.
In this image, the city of Houston, Texas can easily be seen in the lower right corner of the image as a gray smudge with radiating gray streaks. To the west, San Antonio can be seen as a smaller gray circle. Although the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is larger than either city and can normally be easily distinguished from space, the fresh snowfall over the buildings and roads almost completely obscure it from view. The metroplex appears as a faintly less-white area between several lakes, lying south of the middle of the Red River as it forms the boundary of Oklahoma and Texas. A small blue oval marks White Rock Lake, found in urban Dallas.
Snowfall can be expected in the Dallas-Fort Worth region 2-3 days out of the year and accumulation is usually seen in at least once every winter, bringing an annual average snowfall of 2.5 inches. In most parts of the city, the snowfall from this storm was more than double the expected yearly average.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 2/5/2011
Resolutions:
1km ( B), 500m ( B), 250m ( B)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
