Here is all of 2008 in infrared from NOAA’s eastern GOES satellite. This was the wettest year on record here in the mid-Mississippi valley, and the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season was a fairly busy one.
Note that the images used here do not show clouds per se — it is infrared sensing. That generally correlates to cloud cover, but it’s not identical. There are often low clouds when this image would make you think the sky is clear. High clouds and thick clouds with high tops — the weather makers — are what these images show most clearly. And those are the interesting ones, of course.
The whorl and play of weather systems sweeping across the continent is always fascinating. In certain seasons you can see sea breeze convergence creating diurnal pulses of cumulus clouds over Florida and the Greater Antilles. The rain shadow of mountain ranges is evident.
