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Severe thunderstorms in Montana and South Dakota

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with SPC storm reports plotted in red; Carter County, Montana and Harding County, South Dakota are outlined in blue [click to play MP4 animation]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed thunderstorms which produced large hail and tornadoes in far southeastern Montana and far northwestern South Dakota (SPC storm reports | NWS Billings | NWS Rapid City) on 28 June 2018. The pulsing nature of the parent storm’s overshooting tops was very apparent in the animation.

The corresponding GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (below) revealed cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures in the -70 to -75ºC range (black to light gray enhancement) associated with some of the overshooting tops (for example, at 0233 UTC).

GOES-16 "Clean" Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images, with SPC storm reports plotted in red; Carter County, Montana and Harding County, South Dakota are outlined in blue [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images, with SPC storm reports plotted in red; Carter County, Montana and Harding County, South Dakota are outlined in blue [click to play MP4 animation]

These overshooting top infrared brightness temperatures were 5-10ºC colder than the -65.3ºC tropopause temperature on 00 UTC Rapid City SD rawinsonde data (below).

Plot of rawinsonde data from Rapid City SD [click to enlarge]

Plot of rawinsonde data from Rapid City SD [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-16, Severe convection