Weather satellites take a picture of the world every 5 to 15 minutes, depending on location. This provides the basis for this satellite animation, allowing you to watch the weather over New Mexico in real-time.
We evaluated the performance of five precipitation products (PDIR-Now, IMERG Final, Stage IV, ERA5-Land and IMERG Late) over Arizona and New Mexico for the monsoon season (June 15th through September 30th) from 2002 to 2021.
Cloud Cover
Weather satellite images show cloud cover in a way that allows you to see the clouds as they develop. They also tell you when the sun will shine in your area and how likely it is to be sunny. On our cloud cover map, yellow areas indicate sunny conditions, while gray color means light cloud cover.
You can click on a color to find out more about the cloud cover, or you can choose a different area by clicking on the marker that is in front of it. The map uses infrared satellite imagery that can be processed to show the temperature of the clouds, enabling you to see the warmest (lowest) clouds in white, and the coldest (highest) in yellow or red.
To use the CMC forecast for a particular hour, click on one of the blocks that represents that hour. The number at the top of each block indicates the time in local time, -7.0 hours from GMT. The blocks are connected, so they represent one forecast calculation for several hours. The accuracy of these charts is good for predictions up to 12 hours into the future, but falls off the chart when predicting beyond that time frame.
Rain
Satellites take a picture of the whole world every 5 to 10 minutes. This picture is then used to create a map of the weather on a large scale. In the case of new mexico, there is much rain in the area where you can see the red circles on the map above. It is a good idea to check the forecast maps before going out to ensure that you are not caught in a storm. The forecast maps are shown with animation so that you can see the weather change on a larger scale than you can in real life.