GOES-R FIT over the Southern U.S.

One of today's focus areas for the icing FA desk is the low pressure center moving through the Southern U.S. Icing is expected to occur in the southern Mississippi River Valley from GA to northern TX.

The GOES-R FIT index was indicating high probabilities of moderate icing over OK and part of AK, which corroborated with the icing PIREPs in the same regions indicating light and moderate icing. Also supporting these FIT probabilities is the GOES-R Cloud Phase. This algorithm can be used to identify areas of supercooled or mixed water clouds, both conducive to the development of icing conditions. In this particular case, the higher probabilities of icing as shown by the FIT were forecast mainly for the OK area, but also note the light and dark greens in the cloud phase imagery for the same time, indicating a region of supercooled cloud tops in that same area.

20130212 1932 UTC GOES-R FIT, PIREPs and 21Z icing forecast. The FIT index ranges from 0-8, with 0 lght gray = none, 1 white = indeterminant, 2 purple = low prob light (day), 3 blue =  med prob light (day), 4 yellow = high prob light (day), 5 red = high prob mod-heavy (day), 6 cyan = night icing, 7 = bad retrival, and 8 black = missing data.

20130212 1915 UTC GOES-R Cloud Phase, PIREPs, and 21Z icing forecast