Severe thunderstorms along the South Texas coast
GOES-19 Visible images (0.64 µm, left) and Infrared images (10.3 µm, right) with time-matched (+/- 5 minutes) plots of SPC Storm Reports, from 1841-2031 UTC on 01 May [click to play animated GIF]
5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Visible and Infrared images (above) showed a couplet of thunderstorm cells that moved toward the South Texas coast during the afternoon hours on 01 May 2026 — which produced small hail, an EF1-rated tornado and damaging wind gusts as high as 119 mph (SPC Storm Reports | NWS Corpus Christi damage survey).
GOES-19 Infrared images (below) depicted the 3 METAR sites that were directly affected by these thunderstorm cells, and highlighted the rapid cooling followed by the warming of cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures over the course of about 1 hour.
GOES-19 Infrared (10.3 µm) images with plots of 15-minute METAR surface reports, from 1856-2006 UTC on 01 May [click to play MP4 animation]
GOES-19 Infrared (10.3 µm) image at 1931 UTC on 01 May, with a cursor sample of the coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperature [click to enlarge]
The coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperature exhibited by the northernmost storm was -80.53ºC at 1931 UTC (above) — which represented a ~3 km overshoot of the Most Unstable (MU) air parcel’s Equilibrium Level (EL) to near the Maximum Parcel Level (MPL), according to a plot of rawinsonde data from Corpus Christi at 1800 UTC (below).
Plot of rawinsonde data from Corpus Christi, Texas at 1800 UTC on 01 May [click to enlarge]
GOES-19 Water Vapor images (below) revealed rather dry middle-tropospheric air (shades of yellow to orange) just west of the severe thunderstorms.
GOES-19 Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images with time-matched (+/- 5 minutes) plots of SPC Storm Reports (cyan), from 1841-2031 UTC on 01 May; KCRP denotes the location of Corpus Christi [click to play animated GIF]
As the middle-tropospheric dry air moved eastward in the wake of the severe thunderstorms, the DCAPE at Corpus Christi increased from 866 J/kg at 1800 UTC to 1047 J/kg six hours later at 0000 UTC (below) — indicative of an increasing tendency for the downward transport of strong winds aloft to the surface.
Plots of rawinsonde data from Corpus Christi, Texas at 1800 UTC on 01 May and 0000 UTC on 02 May [click to enlarge]