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Strong thunderstorms along a cold front moving across Argentina and Uruguay

By Scott Bachmeier •

1-minute GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images combined with the Total Precipitable Water derived product (in cloud-free areas), from 0900 UTC on 01 December to 1200 UTC on 02 December [click to play MP4 animation]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) + Total Precipitable Water (TPW) images (above) showed severe thunderstorms that developed along a cold front that moved north-northeast across Argentina and Uruguay on 01-02 December 2023. Pulses of thunderstorm overshooting tops occasionally exhibited infrared brightness temperatures in the -85 to -90ºC range (brighter white pixels embedded within black-enhanced cloud regions). North of the advancing front, TPW values were in the 2.0 to 2.3 inch range (lighter shades of violet), while TPW values decreased to the 0.5 to 0.7 inch range (lighter shades of blue) behind the front.

At Montevideo (METAR site SUAA, located along the southern coast of Uruguay), thunderstorms produced a peak wind gust of 54 knots (62 mph) at 1615 UTC on 01 December (below) — along with rainfall of 80 mm (3.15 in) in a 6-hour period, resulting in significant flooding.

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) + Total Precipitable Water derived product at 1615 UTC on 01 December, with cursor sampling of the METAR at SUAA [click to enlarge]

Farther to the west over northern Argentina, strong winds from a convective outflow boundary (just ahead of the cold front) produced blowing dust that reduced the surface visibility at Rosario (SAAR), Santa Fe (SAAV) and Parana (SAAP) (below).

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) + Total Precipitable Water derived product at 1518 UTC on 01 December, with cursor sampling of the METAR at SAAR [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) + Total Precipitable Water derived product at 1810 UTC on 01 December, with cursor sampling of the METAR at SAAV [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) + Total Precipitable Water derived product at 1825 UTC on 01 December, with cursor sampling of the METAR at SAAP [click to enlarge]

Low clouds within the north-northeast moving convective outflow boundary were apparent in GOES-16 True Color RGB images from the  CSPP GeoSphere site (below).

1-minute GOES-16 True Color RGB images, from 1700 UTC to 1900 UTC on 01 December [click to play MP4 animation]

Categories: Air quality, GOES-16, Heavy rain / flooding, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Severe convection