After a cooler than normal April in much of the Eastern U.S., May arrived with clear skies and warm temperatures east of the Mississippi River. This image, captured by NOAA's GOES East satellite on May 1, 2018, shows completely cloud-free skies over a dozen states, in an area stretching from Indiana to Georgia up to the New Jersey coast. A strong high pressure system over the mid-Atlantic suppressed cloud formation, while southwesterly winds helped temperatures climb 10 to 20 degrees above normal in many locations.
This geocolor enhanced imagery was created by NOAA's partners at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere. The GOES East satellite, also known as GOES-16, provides geostationary satellite coverage of the Western Hemisphere, including the United States, the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. First launched in late 2016, the satellite became fully operational in December 2017.