United States  03/16/02

Snow cover left in the wake of a snow storm that swept across the Northern Plains on 14-15 March 2002 is seen in this false color MODIS image acquired 16 March 2002 (top) and on the snow map produced from a MODIS snow algorithm (bottom) at 500m resolution. The greatest amounts of snow fell in a narrow band from southwestern South Dakota to Minnesota. Snow depth of about 16" was reported at Pine Ridge, SD and about 11" at Minneapolis. Appearance of the snow cover (yellow) in the false color MODIS image changes with the landscape from the plains to the forests and lakes regions west of Lake Superior. Snow extent is shown in white on the snow map. Clouds are not identified on the snow map. Rivers and lakes are shown in blue for reference even though most all of the northern lakes were snow and ice covered on this date.

MODIS data was obtained from the direct broadcast facility at the Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin. ( http://www.ssec.wisc.edu ).