2026 US Winter Storm Seen from Space: Satellite Timelapse Using QGIS

In late January 2026, one of the largest winter storms in decades swept across the southern and southeastern United States, bringing ice and snow to states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Geostationary satellites capture these kinds of events in near real-time, producing imagery every few minutes. In this tutorial, I show you how to turn that stream of satellite images into a timelapse animation using the QGIS Timelapse Plugin, with just a few clicks and no coding.

What You Will Need¶

• QGIS installed via Pixi (follow the plugin’s installation instructions)

• The QGIS Timelapse Plugin (version 0.5 or later)

• An internet connection to stream satellite imagery from Google Earth Engine

Install and Update the Plugin¶

1. Go to Plugins > Manage and Install Plugins.

2. Search for timelapse and click Install Plugin.

3. After installation, go to Timelapse > Check for Updates and install the latest version (0.5+). This version adds support for vector data overlays on top of satellite imagery.

4. Restart QGIS after updating.

About the GOES-18 Satellite¶

The timelapse plugin uses data from NOAA’s GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites) constellation. GOES-18 is the latest satellite in the series and provides continuous coverage of North America and surrounding oceans. The data has very high temporal frequency, with imagery captured every few minutes, making it ideal for monitoring weather events as they unfold.

The data is hosted on Google Earth Engine and updated constantly, so you can create timelapses for recent and ongoing events.

Create the Timelapse¶

Set the area of interest¶

1. Click the Timelapse button in the toolbar to open the plugin panel.

2. Draw a rectangle on the map covering your area of interest. For the US winter storm, draw a rectangle that covers the continental United States and includes some of the Atlantic Ocean to the east so you can see ocean currents and cloud movement approaching the coast.

Keep the area reasonable in size. A very large extent combined with high temporal frequency can produce a lot of frames and may exceed processing limits.

Configure the satellite imagery¶

1. Go to the Imagery tab in the plugin panel.

2. Select GOES from the dropdown list.

3. Choose GOES-18 (the latest satellite).

4. Set the start and end date. The plugin defaults to today’s date.

5. Set the time range in UTC. Since GOES imagery is only useful during daylight hours, you need to account for the UTC offset:

   • US Eastern Time is UTC-5, so sunrise around 7:00 AM ET corresponds to roughly 12:00 UTC.

   • Set the start time to around 12:00 UTC and the end time to around 20:00 UTC to capture a full day of daytime imagery.

With imagery every 10 minutes across an 8-hour window, you will get roughly 48 frames, which produces a smooth animation.

Add a vector overlay¶

Without geographic boundaries, it can be difficult to orient yourself when looking at satellite imagery covered in clouds and snow. The plugin (version 0.5+) supports overlaying vector data on top of the timelapse frames.

1. In the Feature Collection field, enter the asset ID of a Google Earth Engine feature collection. For US state boundaries, you can use: users/giswqs/public/us_states

2. Set the outline color (black works well for contrast against cloud imagery).

3. You can use any Earth Engine feature collection, including data from the official catalog or your own account.

Generate the animation¶

Click Create Timelapse and wait roughly 30 seconds to a minute. The plugin downloads each frame, applies the vector overlay, and assembles the animation.

Once complete, the timelapse plays directly in QGIS. You will see:

• The sunrise sweeping from east to west as daylight spreads across the continent

• Cloud and snow bands moving across the southern US

• Ocean currents and moisture patterns approaching from the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic

• The UTC timestamp in the upper-left corner of each frame

Tips for Better Results¶

• Keep the time range short: Start with a single day. Multiple days with 10-minute intervals will generate hundreds of frames and may fail or take a very long time.

• Adjust the area size: A smaller area produces higher-resolution frames. If you are interested in a specific state or region, zoom in.

• Try other satellites: The plugin supports GOES-16 and GOES-17 in addition to GOES-18. You can also use other satellite datasets available in Google Earth Engine.

• Vector projection: When you add a vector overlay, the imagery is reprojected to match the vector data’s coordinate system. This is normal behavior and ensures the boundaries align correctly.

Beyond Visualization¶

The timelapse plugin is designed for quick visualization, but the underlying GOES data is available through Google Earth Engine for quantitative analysis. You can compute cloud cover statistics, track storm movement, or measure changes in surface temperature over time using Python and the Earth Engine API.

Resources¶

• QGIS Timelapse Plugin: github.com/opengeos/qgis-timelapse-plugin

• QGIS Plugin Page: plugins.qgis.org/plugins/timelapse

• GOES-18 on Earth Engine: developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets/catalog/NOAA_GOES

• US States FeatureCollection: users/giswqs/public/us_states

The plugin is not limited to winter storms or North America. Any major weather event with geostationary satellite coverage, whether hurricanes, wildfires, or dust storms, can be turned into a timelapse with the same workflow. Give it a try and feel free to open an issue on GitHub if you run into any problems.