As a new year began, snow stretched across the United States
from California to New England. According to the National
Weather Service, on January 4, 2013, 65.5% of the country was
covered with snow – a dramatic rise from December, 2012’s 7.6%
snow cover. The New England region was 98.2% under snow, with an
average depth of 15.6 inches. The West Coast, including the
California mountains, was 23.9% snow covered. But the snowiest
regions were the Northern Rockies (98.5% covered in snow, with
an average depth of 27 inches) and, just to the south, the
Intermountain Region (99.7% snow cover, but only 9.3 inch
average depth). The Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the
region on January 4, 2013 and acquired this set of striking
images which highlight the wintery scene. The top image is a
false color image, created by using MODIS bands 7, 2 and 1. In
this combination, vegetation appears bright green, clouds are
bright white and snow appears electric blue. Where the