US National Weather Service Memphis Center Weather Service Unit

12/11/2021

https://www.facebook.com/nws.memphiscwsu/posts/3072092076395836

11/08/2021

This video shows a satellite loop of dense fog this morning moving off the J. Percy Priest reservoir just east of Nashville International Airport. Fog often forms over the lake in fall, then depending on low level conditions, can roll over the airport and cause issues. This morning it affected mainly the east and north parts of the field. Years ago our satellites could not show us anything close to this level of detail, but GOES-16 has improved our view considerably.

11/03/2021

It's icing season again, not the kind on cakes (that's always in season) but the kind that gets on airplanes. Here's an example of how Supercooled Large Droplets (SLD) form. Be safe out there...

Take a look at the absolute worst Icing you can possibly get in an airplane. This video is part of our IFR ground school online at www.fly8ma.com ! I persona...

10/10/2021

Here's a current we**am picture from Deadhorse, Alaska (on their north coast). Brrrr.

These shots are available from FAA's we**am site. Expect more locations further south in the future.

https://avcams.faa.gov/

09/24/2021

Fog is often hard to see on satellite at night, making it hard to forecast and track early in the day. The new GOES products are making some inroads, though.

Two new products can help, one is the "Nighttime Microphysics" and another is a chart showing probability of "LIFR" or Low Instrument Flight Rules conditions. The LIFR Probability product worked fairly well at Nashville (BNA) this morning as seen compared to the regular visible satellite view.

09/11/2021

09/10/2021

That hazy look in the sky is more smoke from western wildfires. The smoke is riding the westerlies out of the Pacific Northwest then bending southward into the region along the upper level winds. The "HRRR" model can map the smoke and produce a forecast out several hours. Red is the most intense concentration vertically.

The smoke is aloft over our region and generally not obscuring visibility at the surface.

08/29/2021

Pretty neat view from up front!

08/21/2021

Interesting look at what our fellow NOAA employees do to help us determine weather and aviation impacts across North America and the oceans around us. The important data they get aids models and forecasters help protect property and ensure safety, including modifying air traffic routing and moving aircraft in a tropical storms path out of harms way.

The first “Hurricane Hunter” flight was a bet, but today they’re an essential part of risk management

08/08/2021

Smoke from western wildfires continues to end up in the central and eastern parts of the nation. Here's a satellite loop that shows elevated smoke over Kansas being carried southeast behind an upper level trough (which kicked off thunderstorms over eastern Missouri). Airports through the region reported good surface visibility, but it's likely the "slant range visibility" was reduced.

07/29/2021

Thunderstorms across the region the past few days have been summer-like: very tall. Here's a cross section of a storm near Jackson, MS on Wednesday showing a storm top to 60,000 feet. We noticed several others over the past few days (not shown) in the range of 61-63,000 feet.

Tops this tall don't normally last long as slow moving storms go through the growth-decay cycle and collapse. The collapse phase can cause local microbursts.

(image courtesy Gibson Ridge Software, GR2 Analyst)

07/22/2021

You may have noticed the orange-ish sunset/sunrise the past few days... or visibility restrictions in haze at some regional airports.

This is actually due to smoke from western wildfires being picked up by westerly jet stream winds and carried into the eastern US. Upper winds were from the northeast yesterday, which carried some of that smoke down into the ZME region.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/07/21/bootleg-fire-merge-air-quality-haze/