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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. 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, so closer views of a few notable areas that experienced severe weather are shown below. The 1-minute GOES images include 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).

Central Illinois 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 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 a fatal EF2-rated tornado in 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 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 a fatal tornado in 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