1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) True Color RGB images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (above) provided a view of the rocket condensation cloud resulting from the launch of EUMETSAT MTG-I2 (Meteosat Third Generation Imager-2) from Europe’s Spaceport (the Guiana Space Centre) near Kourou, French Guiana at 2011 UTC on 27 August 2026. The rocket condensation cloud’s deformation in time was due to changes in wind direction and/or wind speed with height.

An animation of 1-minute GOES-19 Rocket Plume RGB images created using Geo2Grid (below) showed the high-altitude signature of the Ariane 6 rocket’s exhaust trail of hot water vapor (brighter shades of yellow).

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In the late afternoon of 25 August 2026, a series of strong thunderstorms formed in the south of France. The most destructive part of this was a tornado that hit the village of Pomas, located approximately 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Toulouse. Dozens of people were hurt and hundreds of homes were destroyed, some dating back hundreds of years. Satellite imagery from the Meteosat-12 geostationary satellite captured the growth and development of these storms. Here’s a movie from the MTG Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) 0.64 visible wavelength channel as captured by EUMETSAT’s Eumetview site. The sun goes down toward the end of the clip, making it easy to see the overshooting tops of the most intense clouds at the end of the day.

The Day Convection RGB product is useful for helping to identify the cells as they’re developing. The yellow cells represent the locations of the most vigorous convection as deep plumes with small ice particles show up as yellow in this recipe. Note that this recipse depends heavily on shortwave channels, so it’s really only useful during the day. As the sun sets and night arrives, the clouds generally shift to a consistent magenta hue. This is not an indication of the makeup of the clouds, just that many of the input channels into the product are tending to zero as day turns to night.

Meteosat-12 also has a lightning imager. Here’s that same animation as the one above, this time with the lightning data overlaid on top of it. Watch how the developing storms are closely linked to the strong lightning levels.

So what caused such an unusual storm in this part of the world? Simply put: it was an American-style severe storm setup. Here in the United States, tornadoes form with the interaction of warm, moist Gulf air and colder air aloft, coupled with appropriate levels of wind shear to give the necessary rotation. In this case, weeks of hot temperatures have warmed the lower troposphere and significant northerly flow originating over the Mediterranean provided that Gulf-like moisture source. A westward propagating cold front was enough to initiate convection just as we see in the US Great Plains. Check out the radiosonde plot from Bordeaux in southwestern France courtesy of the University of Wyoming Sounding Archive. CAPE for this profile was over 2500 J/kg, meaning the environment was very conducive to supporting deep convection.

For more details on the storms, check out the news coverage from Reuters or the BBC. Or, if you”re feeling particularly adventurous, you can always read coverage in French at Le Monde.

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Episode 54 of the ongoing eruption of Kilauea (Episode 1 began on 23 December 2024) commenced at 2030 UTC on 25 August 2026. 5-minute PACUS Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Shortwave Infrared images (above) showed the distinct hot thermal signature of lava fountaining from the Halema`uma`u crater, which persisted for about 9 hours.

As early as 2006 UTC on 25 August, the thermal signature exhibited a 3.9 µm brightness temperature of 137.88ºC (below) — which is the saturation temperature of GOES-18 ABI Band 7 detectors. This saturation temperature was intermittently seen until the eruption episode ended at 0533 UTC on 26 August.

GOES-18 Ash RGB and SO₂ RGB images (below) displayed a prominent plume of SO₂ from the Kilauea eruption, which drifted southward. SO₂ plumes appear similar in these two RGBs, since the 8.5 µm spectral band (which is sensitive to SO₂ absorption) is used in the Green component of each RGB.

The National Weather Service issued a Special Weather Statement advising of potential ashfall downwind of Kilauea. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory estimated that the volcanic plume reached an altitude of 17000 feet — which, according to rawinsonde data from Hilo (below) was near the maximum altitude of northerly winds that were advecting the SO₂ plume southward.

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1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Visible images with an overlay of the Fire Mask derived product (above) showed the thermal signature of the Hawk Fire as it rapidly expanded to the northeast on 22 August 2026. Due to the close proximity of the fire, the Reno/Stead Airport (METAR identifier KRTS) was closed to civilian aircraft (remaining open for firefighting operations only). Evacuation Orders were issued for areas west and northwest of Reno, as the wind-driven brush fire eventually jumped US 395 (plotted in magenta), causing part of that highway to be closed. By the end of the day on 22 August, the Hawk Fire had burned approximately 10500 acres, at 0% containment. One fatality was attributed to the fire.

1-minute GOES-18 GeoColor RGB images with an overlay of Next Generation Fire System (NGFS) Fire Detection polygons (below) provided a closer view of the thermal signature, smoke plume and occasional bursts of pyrocumulus clouds produced by the Hawk Fire (the initial NGFS detection occurred at 1819 UTC). Wind gusts in the vicinity of the fire were as high as 49 mph (red numbers in the lower right corner of the Surface Observation plots).

A longer animation of 1-minute GOES-18 Fire Temperature RGB images (below) indicated that the fire’s thermal signature had significantly diminished by 0400 UTC on 23 August.

The Hawk Fire burned very hot, first exhibiting the 137.88ºC saturation temperature of GOES-18 ABI Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, Band 07) detectors at 2041 UTC (below). The fire frequently exhibited this saturation temperature for nearly 6 hours, until 0230 UTC on 23 August.

===== 27 August Update =====

5 days after the Hawk Fire started, its burn scar (darker shades of brown) was evident in a Landsat-9 Natural Color RGB image (above). The fire was 95% contained at that point in time.

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