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Record 24-hour rainfall in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animated GIF | MP4]       

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector (from 0600-0800 UTC) and 5-minute CONUS Sector (from 0801-1301 UTC) GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed clusters of thunderstorms that developed and moved eastward across parts of South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa on 07 August 2022. In fact, these storms contributed to a new 24-hour rainfall record (5.44 inches) being set at Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Much of this record rainfall occurred during the 0600-1300 UTC period shown by the GOES-16 imagery.

Shortly after flash flooding had been reported in Sioux Falls, a toggle between NOAA-20 VIIRS Infrared (11.45 µm) and GOES-16 ABI “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images valid at 0826 UTC (below) revealed that the coldest NOAA-20 cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures near Sioux Falls at that time were -83ºC, compared to -74ºC with GOES-16 (identical color enhancements were applied to both images). The northwestward shift in GOES-16 image cloud-top features was associated with parallax (which in this case was a distance of 22 km for a cloud-top height of 50,000 feet).

NOAA-20 Infrared Window (11.45 µm) and GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images valid at 0826 UTC [click to enlarge]  

The MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product at 0300, 0600, 0900 and 1200 UTC — visualized using RealEarth — is shown below. TPW values near Sioux Falls peaked at 57 mm (or 2.24 inches) at 0900 UTC.

MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product at 03, 06, 09 and 12 UTC (with plots of surface fronts/troughs) [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-16, Heavy rain / flooding, Microwave, NOAA-20, RealEarth, VIIRS