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Severe thunderstorms across Nebraska and Iowa

By Scott Bachmeier •

1-minute GOES-16 Visible/Infrared Sandwich RGB images with time-matched Local Storm Reports plotted in yellow, from 1700-2320 UTC on 26 April [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) Visible/Infrared Sandwich RGB images (above) showed thunderstorms that produced tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds (SPC Storm Reports) across eastern Nebraska and western Iowa on 26 April 2024.

1-minute GOES-16 Visible/Infrared Sandwich RGB images with an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density (below) showed the lightning activity associated with this convection — which included some notable lightning jumps as tornadic thunderstorms moved through the Omaha area (producing the EF3-rated Elkhorn tornado) beginning about 2040 UTC.

1-minute GOES-16 Visible/Infrared Sandwich RGB images with an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density and time-matched Local Storm Reports plotted in yellow, from 1700-2320 UTC on 26 April [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

A larger-scale view using 1-minute GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (below) also showed the storms that affected western and central Iowa after sunset. The coldest infrared brightness temperatures of thunderstorm overshooting tops were around -60ºC (darker black enhancement).

1-minute GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images with time-matched Local Storm Reports plotted in white, from 1630 UTC on 26 April to 0202 UTC on 27 April [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

Cursor sample of select Tornado Local Storm Reports across eastern Nebraska and western Iowa, from 1955-2305 UTC on 26 April [click to play animated GIF]

Cursor samples displayed a few select Tornado Local Storm Reports across eastern Nebraska and western Iowa from 1955-2305 UTC on 26 April (above) and across western and central Iowa from 0025-0159 UTC on 27 April (below).

Cursor sample of select Tornado Local Storm Reports across western and central Iowa, from 0025-0159 UTC on 27 April [click to play animated GIF]

A larger-scale view of 1-minute GOES-16 Infrared images that included an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density is shown below.

1-minute GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images with an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density and time-matched Local Storm Reports plotted in white, from 1630 UTC on 26 April to 0202 UTC on 27 April [click to play animated GIF |  MP4]

Categories: GLM, GOES-16, Lightning, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Severe convection