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Large hail in eastern Colorado

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm, left) and Infrared Window (10.4 µm, right) images, with surface station identifiers in yellow and SPC reports of hail size in cyan [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm, left) and Infrared Window (10.35 µm, right) images, with surface station identifiers plotted in yellow and SPC reports of hail size plotted in red/cyan [click to play animation | MP4]

** The GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational data and are undergoing testing. **

Severe thunderstorms developed over eastern Colorado on 08 May 2017, producing large hail (especially in the Denver area: SPC storm reports | NWS Boulder summary). Both GOES-16 Mesoscale Sectors were positioned over that region, providing 30-second interval images — Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed the convection in great detail, with SPC storm reports of hail size (inches; H275 = 2.75 inches in diameter) plotted in red/cyan. Several of the storms exhibited well-defined overshooting tops in the Visible imagery, as well as “enhanced-V” and/or cold-warm “thermal couplet” signatures on the Infrared imagery.


A comparison of 30-second interval GOES-16 Mesoscale Sector and 15-minute interval GOES-13 (GOES-East) Routine Scan visible images (below) demonstrated the clear advantage of rapid-scan imagery for monitoring convective development. Also note the degradation of GOES-13 visible imagery (the cloud features do not appear as bright), due to the age of that satellite — the GOES-R series ABI instrument features on-board visible detector calibration, so this type of visible image degradation over time will not occur.

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm, left) and GOES-13 Visible (0.63 µm, right) images, with surface station identifiers in yellow [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm, left) and GOES-13 Visible (0.63 µm, right) images, with surface station identifiers plotted in yellow [click to play animation | MP4]

Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images (below; actual satellite overpass time 1943 UTC) provided a high-resolution (375 meter) view of the developing thunderstorms, about 17 minutes before the first report of hail northeast of Trinidad (KTAD) at 2000 UTC — a number of these storms exhibited cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures of -70 to -73º C (black enhancement). The VIIRS instrument will also be on the JPSS series of satellites, the first of which is scheduled to be launched in the 4th quarter of 2017.

Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images [click to enlarge]

Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images, with surface station identifiers plotted in cyan [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-13, GOES-16, Severe convection, Suomi NPP, VIIRS