Monday, March 05, 2012

Upper-level Short-wave Trough Moving Ashore


The above satellite water-vapor image is for 13 UTC this morning and shows a distinct, upper-level short-wave that is approaching the Southwest. Moisture with this system appears to be mostly middle and upper-level cloudiness. This system provides an opportunity to examine a couple of products available in the output from Atmo's high-resolution version of the WRF-GFS forecast model. The graphic below shows forecast of outgoing long-wave radiation (OLR in W/m2) valid at 2 pm MST this afternoon. Brighter white colors indicate higher and thicker cloud cover.



The last graphic above is the 2 pm forecast for solar irradiance (W/m2) - the color scale goes from dark yellow (sunny) to dark blue (thick cloudiness). Both products indicate considerable higher cloudiness today during parts of the afternoon.

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