A tornado moved through the Atlanta, Georgia metro area (this was the first tornado to strike downtown Atlanta since record-keeping began in the late 1800s) around 01:40 UTC on 15 March 2008 (9:40 PM local time on 14 March 2008), causing EF-2 damage over a 6 mile long and 200 yard wide path (CNN report). An animation of GOES-12 10.7 µm IR images (above) showed the severe convection as it moved across northern Georgia (hail of 1.0 inch in diameter was also reported around 01:00 UTC). The storm’s appearance on satellite imagery was rather unremarkable, however — there was no “enhanced-v” storm top signature, and cloud top brightness temperatures were only as cold as about -50º C (light orange enhancement). The tropopause temperature on the 00:00 UTC Peachtree City, Georgia rawinsonde report (below) looked to be around -47º C.
Scott et al.,
See
http://media.www.redandblack.com/media/storage/paper871/news/2008/03/17/Opinions/Disaster.Scenario.Comes.To.Life-3271035.shtml
for my account of watching the Atlanta tornado from the 14th floor of a hotel about 1-2 miles away from the storm path.
Although it may not have looked classic on satellite, it seemed to be a classic supercell in NW flow on radar.
John Knox