5 February 2006, 08:52 CST
Upper Midwest Snow Storm
Credit: Jesse Allen; MODIS team; NASA
The first snow storm of 2006 dumped several inches of snow across a wide
swath of the Midwest, with snowfall totals from four to five inches recorded
in Chicago to as much as a foot just north of the city.
Beyond the traffic accidents caused by icy roads, the storm was not a
remarkable one. It did, however, leave a clear track across the Midwest and
the Great Lakes region.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra
satellite captured this image of the storm on January 21, 2006, a day after
the snow fell.
The deep blue waters of Lakes Michigan, left, and Huron, right, stand out
starkly against the background of white. Remarkably, the lakes show no sign of
freezing. At this time in 2005, the shores of both lakes were fringed with
ice.
January 2006 has been warmer than average across the United States. Average
weekly temperatures in the area shown in this image have ranged from 5 degrees
Celsius above average to more than 8.3 degrees Celsius above average,
according to the National Climate Data Center
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