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NOAA Satellites–And You–Are Helping Better Identify Hazardous Blowing Snow

2026-03-10

A roadway and streetlights with blowing snow.
A traffic camera in Pembina, North Dakota captured blowing snow on Dec. 18, 2025. [Credit: North Dakota Department of Transportation] 

When hazardous winter weather threatens public safety, forecasters want as much information as possible to issue their live-saving warnings. One wintertime hazard—blowing snow—can be an often overlooked but significant threat. Blowing snow is snow that has already fallen and is being lofted from the ground by strong winds. It can cause a sudden reduction of surface visibility to near-zero, posing a serious hazard to both ground and air transportation.

What’s more, forecasting blowing snow can be more challenging due to variables like wind speed, the state of the snowpack and the predicted temperatures. NOAA satellites are a critical resource for meteorologists when blowing snow threatens a community—and now citizen scientists, like yourself, can be too.

A collaboration between NOAA NESDIS’ Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) and the citizen scientists from Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program is helping test run a new satellite product designed to detect blowing snow, a hazard that can reduce visibility for air and ground transportation.

In satellite imagery, blowing snow can resemble Horizontal Convective Rolls (HCRs), or cloud-like-features, making it challenging for forecasters to identify using traditional satellite imagery techniques. By partnering with the GLOBE Program on the Blowing Snow Pilot Project STAR is collecting photographs of blowing snow to help confirm and refine satellite-based Blowing Snow RGB imagery products. Improving the detection and monitoring of blowing snow is essential to support NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) forecasting and timely weather advisories and warnings.

Satellite imagery with a triangle marking Pembina, North Dakota and a circle marking areas of blowing snow.
This GOES East Blowing Snow RGB image captures blowing snow appearing bright green/yellow against snow cover's darker red background in upper North Dakota near the Canadian border. Image captured on Dec. 18, 2025 and connects to banner image. [Credit: NOAA] 

Gathering Data with Satellites

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites and the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument aboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-R series) are used to detect blowing snow.

Both the GOES ABI and JPSS VIIRS Blowing Snow RGB products combine visible, near-infrared and infrared imagery to identify blowing snow. They highlight the snow lifted and transported by strong winds, distinguishing it from surrounding snow cover and cloud cover under otherwise clear skies.

Because the product relies on reflected sunlight, blowing snow can only be detected during the daytime and depends on solar illumination, sun angle, snow plume thickness and clear skies.  

Tapping into Citizen Scientists

This project is a collaboration between STAR and the GLOBE Program, the latter funded by NASA and supported by NOAA and the National Science Foundation (NSF). GLOBE supports an international network of citizen scientists and researchers working together to learn more about Earth's environment. Using GLOBE’s Observer app cloud tool, participants are taking photos of the sky and horizon between December 2025 through March 31, 2026, documenting blowing snow conditions. These ground-based photos provide valuable confirmation of when and where blowing snow is occurring.

Left, a satellite image with a triangle marking Maddock Municipal Airport, and right a ground image from a camera at the airport.
The image on the left is a satellite shot of blowing snow appearing bright green/yellow against snow cover's darker red/orange background. The image on the right shows the view from an FAA webcam at Maddock Municipal Airport in Maddock, North Dakota. Both images were captured on Jan. 26, 2026. [Credit: NOAA and the Federal Aviation Administration]  

The Civil Air Patrol, a volunteer auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force and long-standing partner in environmental monitoring efforts, provided additional observations through GLOBE. Civil Air Patrol volunteers contributed ground-based photos across the North Central and Rocky Mountain regions, further expanding the dataset.

These ground-based photographs will be compared with satellite imagery to validate the Blowing Snow RGB products. The results of the blowing snow pilot project will be shown on a recorded GLOBE Observer Connect webinar on March 26, 2026.
 

Webcam image of blowing snow.
Webcam image of blowing snow in Weyburn, Canada on Jan. 16, 2026. 
[Credit: NAV Canada webcam via weathercams.faa.gov]

Aiding Forecasters on Blowing Snow

Are you interested in becoming a citizen scientist for the Blowing Snow Pilot Project?  If so, time is running out! Go to GLOBE’s website and help report blowing snow and low visibility through March 31, 2026.  There are step-by-step instructions on how to report your blowing snow observations and submit your photos to GLOBE. You’ll be part of a team of scientists assisting forecasters while helping safeguard your community.

 

Originally posted by NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service.

 


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