The 3-4 April 1974 Super Outbreak (NWS Wilmington OH | Wikipedia | StoryMap | Interacive WebMap | Monthly Weather Review) was one of the largest and most deadly tornado outbreaks on record in the United States. Several images from the ATS-3 satellite are shown below (thanks to the work of SSEC Satellite Data Services and Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences Library staff!). The... Read More

With a strong midlatitude cyclone centered over Iowa on 31 March 2023, the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) outlined 2 areas of relatively rare High Risk for severe weather — and GOES-16 (GOES-East) Total Precipitable Water along with the Lifted Index (LI) and Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) Derived Stability Indices (above) showed that a corridor of moisture and instability... Read More

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm), Night Fog BTD (10.3 µm – 3.9 µm) and Nighttime Microphysics RGB images (above) displayed the thermal signature — via a single warm pixel — of a fire that resulted from a BNSF train derailment (media report) in Raymond, Minnesota at 0602 UTC (1:02 AM CDT) on 30 March 2023.  Although the... Read More

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images (above) include an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density — and showed the distinct circulation of a middle-tropospheric closed low (400 hPa analysis) as it moved northeastward across Illinois and Indiana into southern Lower Michigan on 25 March 2023. Isolated clusters of brief lightning activity were... Read More