1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images (above) showed clusters of slow-moving thunderstorms across Torrance County in central New Mexico on 19 June 2024. In addition to generating strong winds and heavy rainfall, these storms were also prolific hail-producers — most notably, there was one Local Storm Report of 2.00-inch diameter hail that lasted for 1.5 hours and accumulated to a depth of 6 inches (9 miles southeast of Willard).

Parts of the northwest-to-southeast oriented swath of hail accumulation near Willard were evident through occasional breaks in the clouds — exhibiting varying shades of green, such as was seen at 2005 UTC, 2250 UTC, 2305 UTC and 0006 UTC. The hail swath appeared to have crossed State Highway 60, which jogs west-to-east across Torrance County (passing through Willard).

View only this post Read Less

MIMIC Total Precipitable Water fields from 15 June through 19 June 2024, above, show a broad cyclonic circulation over Central America and adjacent waters (the Central American Gyre). On 18 June, shown below in an animation from the CSPP Geosphere site, the convection in this gyre was diffuse and unorganized (although the National Hurricane Center initiated Potential Tropical Cyclone advisories on the system at 2100 UTC on the 17th.

By 1500 UTC on 19 June, the system had acquired sufficient convection near its center, and had become organized enough to achieve Tropical Storm status, and the first named storm of the 2024 Atlantic Season, Alberto, was named. The Geosphere animation below, from 1300-1700 UTC on 19 June (that is, 24 hours after the animation above), shows the increase in convection over the southern Gulf of Mexico.

The shear over the western Gulf of Mexico became much more favorable for tropical storm development between 1800 UTC on 18 June and 1800 UTC on 19 June 2024, that is, it has decreased, as shown below (imagery taken from here).

The projected path of Alberto is westward into Mexico, as shown in the image below showing the favorable shear values and warm Sea-surface Temperatures. Slow strengthening is forecast.

---

Although the storm center is forecast to move into Mexico, the very moist airmass surrounding the system is affecting (and will continue to affect) much of coastal and southern Texas. Tropical Storm warnings are in place from Galveston southward to Mexico, and Flash Flood Warnings have also been raised. A Flood Watch is in effect for Texas south of San Antonio. For more information on Alberto, refer to the National Hurricane Center website.

View only this post Read Less

Starting on June 19, 2024, there was a large haboob (“wall of dust”) over New Mexico and nearby regions. This was captured by both GOES-18 (1-min “mesoscale”) and GOES-16 (5-min “Contiguous U.S.”) ABI imagery. What is shown is the CIMSS true color composite imagery during the day and the “dust” RGB at night. Both animations run from approximately 21 UTC on June 19 to 04 UTC on June 20th, 2024.

Similar loop as above, but as seen from NOAA’s GOES-East.

H/T

The imagery was generated with the geo2grid software. The data was accessed via the UW/SSEC Data Services. T. Schmit works for NOAA/NESDIS/STAR and is stationed in Madison, WI.

View only this post Read Less

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Day Fire RGB, Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm), and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images with overlays of the Fire Power and Fire Mask derived product (2 components of the GOES Fire Detection and Characterization Algorithm FDCA) (above) displayed signatures of the South Fork Fire and Salt Fire, which started on 17 June 2024 near Ruidoso in southern New Mexico. The GOES-18 3.9 µm Shortwave Infrared brightness temperature exhibited by the northernmost South Fork Fire first reached 137.88ºC (the saturation temperature of GOES-18 ABI Band 7 detectors) at 2012 UTC — and that fire continually exhibited the 137.88ºC saturation temperature for about 5.5 hours (ending at 0140 UTC). The 2 wildfires caused evacuations to be ordered for much of Ruidoso community.

1-minute GOES-18 True Color RGB images (source) on 17 June (below) showed the transport of dense smoke from the wildfires. Note the occasional brighter-white pyrocumulus jumps near the fire source region.

A Suomi-NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band image valid at 0809 UTC (2:09 AM local time) on 18 June (below) displayed the bright nighttime glow of the 2 wildfires near Ruidoso — with the combined smoke plume extending to the northeast and fanning out across the Texas Panhandle. Smoke occasionally restricted the surface visibility to 4-5 miles at Ruidoso Regional Airport KSRR.

1-minute GOES-18 images and derived fire products on 18 June are shown below.

View only this post Read Less