This website works best with a newer web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Microsoft Edge. Internet Explorer is not supported by this website.

CIMSS Satellite Blog

MENU

Severe thunderstorms in Indiana and Ohio

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with SPC Storm Reports plotted in red [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with SPC Storm Reports plotted in red [click to play animation | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) revealed supercell thunderstorms that developed within the warm sector of a midlatitude cyclone approaching from the Upper Midwest (surface analyses) — these thunderstorms produced a variety of severe weather (SPC Storm Reports | NWS Northern Indiana) across Indiana late in the day on 27 May 2019.

Many of these storms exhibited well-defined overshooting tops; the largest hail was 4.0 inches in diameter at 0000 UTC. A comparison of SPC Storm Reports at the time of this large hail (and a nearby wind gust to 72 mph) — plotting the reports at the actual ground location vs a “parallax-corrected” location which shifted them northwestward — showed that the severe report locations closely corresponded to the overshooting top (below).

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with SPC Storm Reports plotted in red [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) image at 0000 UTC, with SPC Storm Reports plotted in red [click to enlarge]

The corresponding GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (below) showed that many of the overshooting tops had infrared brightness temperatures in the -70 to -75ºC range.

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images, with SPC Storm Reports plotted in cyan [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images, with SPC Storm Reports plotted in cyan [click to play animation | MP4]

As the thunderstorms moved eastward across Ohio, they continued to produce all modes of severe weather (including EF-3 and EF-4 tornadoes in the Dayton area beginning around 0258 UTC). Additional information on these storms is available from the Hazardous Weather Testbed.

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images, with SPC Storm Reports plotted in cyan [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images, with SPC Storm Reports plotted in cyan [click to play animation | MP4]

A Terra MODIS Infrared Window (11.0 µm) image at 0243 UTC with plots of SPC Storm Reports within +/- 45 minutes of the image time (below) showed cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures as cold as -73ºC.

Terra MODIS Infrared Window (11.0 µm) image with plots of SPC Storm Reports within +/- 45 minutes of the image time [click to enlarge]

Terra MODIS Infrared Window (11.0 µm) image with plots of SPC Storm Reports within +/- 45 minutes of the image time [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-16, MODIS, Severe convection, Terra