Phenomena: Flooding
Satellite: NOAA-20, NOAA-21, Suomi NPP
Product: Day Land Cloud
Instrument: Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)
Date: Jan. 27, 2025; Feb. 17, 2025
This before-and-after imagery of the Lower Mississippi River Valley shows the impact of heavy rainfall and flooding that struck the region in mid-February 2025. The first image, captured on Jan. 27, shows how the local rivers and tributaries looked before the recent deluge of rain. In contrast, the second image from Feb. 17 shows the swollen waterways and low-lying areas filled with floodwater from the rain.
The storm responsible for this widespread flooding brought more than seven inches of rain across parts of Kentucky and Tennessee, affecting the Ohio, Tennessee and Mississippi river valleys. The heavy rain fell on already saturated ground, leading to historic river flooding, levee failures, and evacuations.
These images were captured by the NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Program’s VIIRS instrument, which scans the entire Earth twice per day at a 750-meter resolution. The Day Land Cloud product provides images that help distinguish various types of clouds and landcover. In this image, light green is vegetation, brown is dry or rocky land, and dark blue shades are lakes, rivers or standing water.
NOAA-20, along with NOAA-21, and the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP make up NOAA’s JPSS, the Nation’s advanced series of polar-orbiting environmental satellites. JPSS represents significant technological and scientific advancements in observations used for severe weather prediction and environmental monitoring. These data are critical to the timeliness and accuracy of forecasts three to seven days in advance of a severe weather event. JPSS is a collaborative effort between NOAA and NASA.