Overshooting tops above a thunderstorm suggest an updraft powerful enough to penetrate through the tropopause into the stratosphere. In mid-latitudes, overshoots are well-correlated with both heavy precipitation and severe weather. In the tropics, overshooting tops are linked to intensification in tropical systems. In the image toggle above of an area of disturbed weather that may become a... Read More
An area of disturbed weather that emerged off the coast of Africa over the weekend has acquired sufficient organized convection to be classified as a Tropical Storm, Katia, the 11th named storm of this active Atlantic Hurricane Season. Analyses from the CIMSS Tropical Weather Website show the storm just south of a region of dry air from the Sahara. Shear analyses at the... Read More
Category two Hurricane Irene (shown in the rocking animation above) is over the South Atlantic Bight after moving through the Bahamas on August 25th. The projected path is over coastal North Carolina and then towards New England. What factors will control future changes in strength?Morphed microwave imagery, above (and available... Read More
Automated detection of overshooting tops allows identification of regions of intense convective updrafts that penetrate into the stratosphere. Overshooting tops correlate well with regions of intense rainfall and with severe weather. In tropical systems, overshooting tops are most frequent during intensification. The loop above shows overshooting tops (identified as the... Read More
