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Comparisons of 1-minute GOES-16 and GOES-19 imagery during a severe weather outbreak

By Scott Bachmeier •

On a rare High Risk Convective Outlook day, a widespread outbreak of severe thunderstorms produced tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds (SPC Storm Reports) across a large swath of the central and eastern US during the afternoon and subsequent nighttime hours on 02 April 2025 — along and ahead of a cold front and pre-frontal squall line (surface analyses). As mentioned in this blog post, GOES-19 had arrived at the GOES-East position (over the Equator at 75.2ºW Longitude) and had begun broadcasting data — which presented an opportunity for a GOES-16 (the current operational GOES-East) vs. GOES-19 comparison during this severe weather outbreak.

There was some overlap of Mesoscale Domain Sector 2 from both satellites (below) — the 1-minute GOES images included plots of time-matched (+/- 3 minutes) SPC Storm Reports (T=Tornado, TEF2=Tornado rated at EF2 damage, H275=Hail of 2.75″ in diameter, W=Wind damage, W90=Wind gust of 90 mph).

1-minute GOES-16 (left) and GOES-19 (right) Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images, with time-matched (+/- 3 minutes) SPC Storm Reports plotted in cyan [click to play animated GIF | MP4

Closer views of a few areas that received notable severe weather are shown below:

Central Illinois Tornadoes/Hail/Damaging Winds

1-minute GOES-16 (left) and GOES-19 (right) Red Visible (0.64 µm) images centered over central Illinois, with time-matched (+/- 3 minutes) SPC Storm Reports plotted in red [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

GOES-16 vs. GOES-19 Visible images (above) and Infrared images (below) showed convection that produced an EF2-rated tornado, hail as large as 2.00″ in diameter and wind gusts as high as 90 mph in central Illinois. In the Visible imagery, small-scale features such as thunderstorm overshooting tops were resolved equally well by both satellites; in the Infrared images, cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures of cold features such as overshooting tops were generally in very good agreement (separated by 0.1 K or less).

1-minute GOES-16 (left) and GOES-19 (right) Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images centered over central Illinois, with time-matched (+/- 3 minutes) SPC Storm Reports plotted in cyan [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

Missouri/Arkansas/Kentucky Tornadoes

1-minute GOES-16 (left) and GOES-19 (right) Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images centered over the Missouri/Kentucky/Tennessee border, with time-matched (+/- 3 minutes) SPC Storm Reports plotted in cyan [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

GOES-16 and GOES-19 Infrared images (above) showed thunderstorms that produced several tornadoes across southeast Missouri and southwest Kentucky, including an EF3-rated tornado in southeast Missouri around 2013 UTC and a fatal EF2-rated tornado in southeast Missouri around 2332 UTC. These storms also produced hail to 2.75″ in diameter and wind gusts to 70 mph.

Indiana Tornadoes/Damaging Winds

1-minute GOES-16 (left) and GOES-19 (right) Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images centered over Indiana, with time-matched (+/- 3 minutes) SPC Storm Reports plotted in cyan [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

GOES-16 and GOES-19 Infrared images (above) displayed thunderstorms that produced EF1-rated tornadoes and wind gusts to 100 mph in parts of Indiana.

Tennessee/Mississippi Tornadoes

1-minute GOES-16 (left) and GOES-19 (right) Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images centered over western Tennessee, with time-matched (+/- 3 minutes) SPC Storm Reports plotted in cyan [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

GOES-16 and GOES-19 Infrared images (above) depicted thunderstorms that produced tornadoes across northern Mississippi and southwest Tennessee — including an EF3-rated tornado that impacted Selmer, Tennessee around 0542 UTC, and a fatal tornado near La Grange, Tennessee around 0631 UTC. Well-defined Enhanced-V storm top signatures were associated with some of these tornado-producing thunderstorms (numerous examples of Enhanced-V storm top signatures have been shown on this blog).

Categories: GOES-16, GOES-19, Severe convection