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Severe thunderstorms across the Southern Plains

By Scott Bachmeier •

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

1-minute GOES-16 (GOES-East) Mesoscale Domain Sector “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) included time-matched (+/- 3 minutes) plots of SPC Storm Reports — which showed severe thunderstorms that moved east-northeastward across parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas on 26 February 2023. The hazy signature of blowing dust was apparent along the New Mexico / Texas border region, along and ahead of an approaching cold front.

1-minute GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images with plots of time-matched SPC Storm Reports (below) indicated that the coldest cloud tops associated with many of the storms exhibited infrared brightness temperatures around -60ºC range (darker red enhancement). These thunderstorms produced numerous tornadoes (the 12 in Oklahoma was a record for the month of February), hail up to 1.75 inches in diameter in Texas and Oklahoma, and damaging wind gusts as strong as 114 mph in Texas.

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images, with time-matched SPC Storm Reports plotted in red [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

The GOES-16 Lifted Index (LI) derived product (below) displayed a corridor of instability with LI values as low as -5ºC (brighter red enhancement) extending northward from Texas into Oklahoma.

GOES-16 Lifted Index derived product, with surface fronts plotted in cyan [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

Categories: GOES-16, Severe convection