1-minute GOES-16 images: severe thunderstorms in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota

By Scott Bachmeier • 11 July 2017

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm, left) and Infrared Window (10.3 µm, right) images, with SPC storm reports plotted in red (on Visible) and black (on Infrared) [click to play MP4 animation]

Severe thunderstorms developed in the warm sector of a mid-latitude cyclone that was moving eastward along the US/Canada border on 11 July 2017.  GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (above) showed the storms that produced tornadoes, wind gusts to 80 mph and hail as large as 2.00 inches (SPC storm reports) across far eastern North Dakota and far northwestern Minnesota (NWS Grand Forks summary). Time-matched SPC storm reports are plotted on the images — the report locations are parallax-corrected to match the location of the cloud-top features. Overshooting tops were very evident on the Visible and Infrared imagery; in addition, pronounced cold/warm Thermal Couplets and/or Enhanced-V signatures were seen in the Infrared images.

Farther to the south, other storms (below) produced hail as large as 3.00 inches and wind gusts to 75 mph across northeastern South Dakota (NWS Aberdeen summary).

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm, top) and Infrared Window (10.3 µm, bottom) images, with SPC storm reports plotted in red (on Visible) and black (on Infrared) [click to play MP4 animation]

Categories: GOES-16, Severe convection