1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 um) images (above) displayed the large supercell moving northeastward across Alabama several hours after sunset on 25 January 2021. This thunderstorm eventually produced an EF3 tornado just north of Birmingham (KBHM) beginning at 0440 UTC.A slightly closer view of GOES-16 Infrared images that include plots of surface reports... Read More
As an anomalously-deep 500 hPa low began to move inland over Southern California during the 23 January – 24 January 2021 period, GOES-17 (GOES-West) Air Mass RGB images (above) showed a compact Potential Vorticity (PV) anomaly approaching the coast — and the RAP40 model indicated that the “dynamic tropopause” (defined here as the pressure of the... Read More
The AirMass RGB from GOES-16 at 0800 UTC on 20 January 2021 showed a distinct color change across central Missouri, from red to green. The enhanced red coloring suggests a large difference in water vapor brightness temperatures. The toggle above (including an image with NUCAPS* sounding points), shows structures in... Read More
GOES-17 (GOES-West) Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images which included Pilot Reports (PIREPS) of turbulence (above) revealed a diverse variety of gravity waves across much of Northern California on 19 January 2021. Three types of waves were prevalent: (1) quasi-stationary mountain waves caused by strong northeasterly flow interacting with topography of the Sierra... Read More
