Possible weekend storm - new satellite in space

Possible weekend storm:

As I talked about in yesterdays blog, the weather pattern is getting very active. Several storms are coming this way, but not all of them will be rain or snow makers. It's been so dry in western Kansas that some of you don't care what form the moisture comes in, just as long as it shows up sooner rather than later. Forecast models agree there will be a storm in the Plains by Sunday, but they don't agree on the track, which dictates precipitation type and amounts. So this is something we have to look at through the Thanksgiving holiday. If you are driving Friday or Saturday, the weather should be very nice in Kansas and surrounding areas. 

GFS - American model

European model

The world of weather is about to see some big advances coming in 2017 and beyond. New, state of the art technology will be orbiting 22,300 miles above Earth in what will be known as GOES-16. This new satellite has so many key features that will help in severe weather forecasting and detection, It's also going to have some very helpful features when dealing with flooding.

Saturday launch from Kennedy Space Center carrying the new satellite

Watch the video to learn more!

Other features include:

• scan the skies 5 times faster
• high resolution imagery as often as every 30 seconds
• improved rainfall estimates
• lightning mapper (to observe frequency of lightning bolts)

It will take several months for the instruments to be of any great use to meteorologists, but the possible advances are going to be significant in the years to come.