File:Snow in Uzbekistan (MODIS 2023-12-14).jpg

English: A late autumn snowstorm brought the first substantial snow of the season to parts of Central Asia in early December 2023. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) acquired a false-color image of a band of fresh snow stretching across Uzbekistan (west) and Kazakhstan (east) on December 12.

This type of false-color image combines infrared and visible light (MODIS bands 7,2,1) to help separate snow (electric blue), from water (dark blue), cloud (white or lightly tinted with blue), vegetation (green), and open or sparsely vegetated land (tan). The band of snow crosses the Kyzyl Kum Desert, a large sand desert in Uzbekistan featuring large sand dunes. The dunes look like tan waves of sand in this image. Where snow tops the dunes, the snow also takes on a wave-like appearance.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), between December 5-11, light to moderate precipitation (5-25 millimeters/0.2-1.0 inch) fell across parts of north-central, eastern, and south-central Kazakhstan, western and eastern Uzbekistan, western Kyrgyzstan, central Tajikistan, and north-central Iran. Heavier precipitation (25 to 50 millimeters/1-2 inches) fell in south-central Kazakhstan. Precipitation has been below normal in these regions over the last 30 days. Additional snow is expected in parts of Central Asian between December 14-20.