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Mid-latitude cyclone in the central US

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images, with hourly precipitation type plotted in yellow [click to play MP4 animation]

5-minute GOES-16 Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images, with hourly precipitation type plotted in yellow [click to play MP4 animation]

A large mid-latitude cyclone intensified over the central US on 22 January 2018, producing a wide variety of weather — in the cold sector, heavy snow and blizzard conditions across the Plains and Upper Midwest (WPC storm summary), and in the warm sector, severe weather (tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds: SPC storm reports) from Mississippi to Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. GOES-16 (GOES-East) Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images (above) showed the large size of the storm circulation, which included a well-defined Warm Conveyor Belt (WCB) and a Trough of Warm Air Aloft (TROWAL) as identified here. More information on conveyor belts and TROWALs is available here.

A GOES-16 Mesoscale Sector provided 1-minute imagery over the Upper Midwest — “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (below) revealed some of the convective elements surrounding the surface low as it reached its occluded stage over Iowa. A small cluster of thunderstorms also developed over central Illinois around 19 UTC, producing 1.0-inch diameter hail.

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm) images, with hourly precipitation type plotted in yellow [click to play MP4 animation]

1-minute GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm) images, with hourly precipitation type plotted in yellow [click to play MP4 animation]

Taking a  closer look at the eastern portion of the previous satellite scene, there was an overlap between the M1 and M2 Mesoscale Sectors — this allowed for images at 30-second intervals (below).

30-second GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm) images, with hourly precipitation type plotted in yellow [click to play MP4 animation]

30-second GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm) images, with hourly precipitation type plotted in yellow [click to play MP4 animation]

Categories: GOES-16, Severe convection, Winter weather