Earth ID: 12576

NASA Catches April 1 Nor'easter over New England

Released on April 10, 2017

At the time of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory overpass (April 1, 2017, 0550 UTC), the storm's center of low pressure was south of Long Island. At the mid-levels of the atmosphere, the circulation was centered over northeast Pennsylvania. This led to a classic overrunning, warm conveyor setup, which happened when the counterclockwise low level flow drew in cold air out of the north/northeast (hence "Nor'easter") from Canada. Higher up, warm and moist air from further south was lifted over this cold air and resulted in precipitation in the form of snow at the surface. The heavy band of snow that is visible in the GPM data resulted in 8-14 inch totals over southern Maine and New Hampshire, while totals further south in Massachusetts were limited by some mixing with rain.

Source Material

Credits

Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Producer
George Huffman (NASA/GSFC): Lead Scientist
Stephen J. Munchak (University of Maryland): Lead Scientist
Dalia B Kirschbaum (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Visualizer

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12576

Mission:
Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)

This item is part of this series:
Narrated Movies

Keywords:
SVS >> GPM
SVS >> New England
SVS >> Hydrosphere >> Snow/Ice
NASA Science >> Earth