Watching Florence With Upgraded Floaters

GOES-East Storm Floaters are coming back online.  When GOES-16 became GOES-East the upgrade was too much for the existing NOAA ssd code.  Even though the Western Pacific floaters were long ago upgraded for a similar data collecting satellite Himawari-8, we were left with just two true floaters that were moved often.   Until now. 

To celebrate, embedding Florences floaters.  Refreshing the page should bring up the latest.  Florence's floater page can be found here.

Florence intensified to a Category 4 Major Hurricane today.  She has taken some shear from the Southwest side since and lost some deep convection.  Look for her to stack back up on Saturday to put on another show.  Where this storm eventually goes is uncertain.  It should not affect land in the next five days.

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Another exciting satellite upgrade in the works is GOES-West.  GOES-17 has been in orbit testing out for the job.  So far it is going well.  Below is a look from GOES-17 this evening at the fires in Northern California.

And check out the #pyrocu activity over the #fires in northern #California this evening - #GOES17 (preliminary and non-operational) pic.twitter.com/ryJKBbzhTt

— Dan Lindsey (@DanLindsey77) September 6, 2018

Awe Turns to Terror from a Closer View

Several had to be rescued from this highway during evacuation.  One was injured.

Close encounter with wildfire next to I-5 near Redding caught on camera ABC7 News Bay Area
Published on Sep 5, 2018Witness video gives us just a sense of the fear a Shasta County wildfire is causing as flames surround a highway and shut down Interstate 5 near Redding. https://abc7ne.ws/2PI16Pb