Snow blanketed most of Great Britain last week and over the weekend, stretching from London to the northern tip of Scotland.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on January 26, 2013. Only some coastal areas and the southwestern part of the island were free of snow when MODIS took this picture.
Skies had largely cleared by the time MODIS acquired this image, but some clouds lingered in the west, casting shadows onto the snowy surface below.
On January 25, The Telegraph reported that the death toll from the storm was in the double digits, some of the deaths resulting from hazardous driving conditions. As of that date, more snowfall was expected, including some near-blizzard conditions in Scotland. Forecasters called for rain to follow the snow, with as much as 40 millimeters (1.6 inches) of rain in western Britain.
Between snowmelt and rain, flooding was expected over the weekend of January 26–27, The Guardian reported. As of January 25, more than 30 flood warnings were already in effect.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response. Caption by Michon Scott.
- Instrument: Terra - MODIS
