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20 injured, with 12 hospitalized after a lightning strike at Lake Murray in South Carolina

5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Visible images with an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density (FED) and contours of LightningCast Probability (above) showed two isolated thunderstorms which passed over the eastern portion of Lake Murray (located in central South Carolina, just northwest of Columbia KCAE) during the late afternoon hours on... Read More

5-minute GOES-19 Visible (0.64 µm) images centered at the eastern edge of Lake Murray, with an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density and contours of LightningCast Probability, from 1801-2101 UTC on 24 June [click to play MP4 animation]

5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Visible images with an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density (FED) and contours of LightningCast Probability (above) showed two isolated thunderstorms which passed over the eastern portion of Lake Murray (located in central South Carolina, just northwest of Columbia KCAE) during the late afternoon hours on 24 June 2025. GLM FED highlighted the presence of satellite-detected lightning activity with each of those two storms — and with the second storm, a lightning strike on the lake around 2043 UTC resulted in 20 injuries, with 12 of those being hospitalized (media report).

A sequence of GOES-19 Infrared and Visible images with LightningCast contours (plus Visible images with both LightningCast contours and GLM FED) is shown below. Note that the LightningCast Probability began to increase in advance of the appearance of FED pixels. The coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures of the isolated thunderstorms were around -55 to -57ºC.

5-minute GOES-19 Infrared (10.3 µm) and Visible (0.64 µm) images with an overlay of contours of LightningCast Probability (in addition to Visible images with an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density and contours of LightningCast Probability), from 1801-2101 UTC on 24 June [click to play MP4 animation]

A time series plot of LightningCast Probability and GOES-19 GLM flash counts at Columbia Metropolitan Airport KCAE (below) showed how the LightningCast Probability dramatically ramped up after 1926 UTC, with GLM flash counts within a 10-mile radius of the airport beginning at 1956 UTC. The LightningCast values dipped briefly at 2021 UTC, as the first storm moved farther from the airport (and before the second storm began to produce GLM flash counts as it moved closer).

Time series plot of LightningCast Probability and GOES-19 GLM flash counts at Columbia Metropolitan Airport KCAE [click to enlarge]

Cursor samples of LightningCast Probability near the eastern edge of Lake Murray — where the lightning-related injuries occurred — revealed values of 96% from 2026-2041 UTC (below).

GOES-19 Visible (0.64 µm) images with an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density and contours of LightningCast Probability (with cursor samples of LightningCast Probability — violet percentage values — near the eastern edge of Lake Murray), from 2026-2041 UTC on 24 June [click to enlarge]

For the storms that affected Lake Murray, lightning was first explicitly mentioned in a METAR report from Fairfield County Airport in Winnsboro at 2015 UTC (below).

GOES-19 Visible (0.64 µm) image with an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density and contours of LightningCast Probability at 2011 UTC, with a cursor sample of the 2015 UTC METAR report from Fairfield County Airport KFDW [click to enlarge]

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Andrea is named in the Atlantic

GOES-19 True Color imagery (from CSPP Geosphere) over the mid-Atlantic between 35o and 40oN Latitude, above, shows the circulation of Tropical Storm Andrea, a system that has been tracked for several days now. Overnight, convection developed over the storm, but that convection appears to have dissipated by mid-day on 24 June 2025.... Read More

GOES-19 True Color imagery,

GOES-19 True Color imagery (from CSPP Geosphere) over the mid-Atlantic between 35o and 40oN Latitude, above, shows the circulation of Tropical Storm Andrea, a system that has been tracked for several days now. Overnight, convection developed over the storm, but that convection appears to have dissipated by mid-day on 24 June 2025. A longer (infrared) animation, below, shows an interesting interactions between two circulations. The more prominent of the two is apparent near 39oN at the start of the animation, versus the harder-to-find circulation of what would become Andrea around 35oN. Convection that develops around Andrea — that lead to the storm being named — might have been influenced by the more northerly circulation.

GOES-19 Clean Window infrared (Band 13, 10.3 µm) imagery, 2040 UTC 24 June 2025 – 1620 UTC 25 June 2025 (Click to enlarge)

Andrea is in a hostile environment for a tropical storm as shown below (imagery from the CIMSS Tropical Weather Site). Shear is strong, and sea-surface temperatures are cooler than 25oC.

MetopB and MetopC both sampled the storm on 24 June 2025, as shown in the slow toggle below (images taken from the manati website). The compact circulation is moving to the northeast, towards colder waters.

ASCAT imagery from Metop-C (0015 and 1238 UTC) and Metop-B (1325 UTC) on 24 June 2025 (Click to enlarge)

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Severe weather over the northern Plains (including an EF-5 tornado near Enderlin, North Dakota)

A fast-moving thunderstorm complex raced across North Dakota and Minnesota in the late afternoon/evening/overnight on 20-21 June 2025, as shown above. GOES-19 band 13 (10.3 µm) imagery and derived stability (Lifted Index) show the development of notable instability with an alignment over North Dakota along the direction of convective movement.... Read More

5-minute GOES-19 Clean Window infrared (Band 13, 10.3 µm) imagery, 1701 UTC 20 June 2025 – 0936 UTC 21 June 2025 (Click to enlarge)

A fast-moving thunderstorm complex raced across North Dakota and Minnesota in the late afternoon/evening/overnight on 20-21 June 2025, as shown above. GOES-19 band 13 (10.3 µm) imagery and derived stability (Lifted Index) show the development of notable instability with an alignment over North Dakota along the direction of convective movement. One very noteworthy aspect of the cold cloud-tops in GOES-19 is their very rapid movement across central North Dakota from about 0100-0500 UTC on 21 June. Mesoscale discussions from SPC on this complex are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here (!! — there were a lot of them!). SPC Watch numbers 447, 448 and 449 covered this system.

This system caused numerous tornadoes and severe wind reports as shown below.

Storm Reports from the Storm Prediction Center, 1200 UTC 20 June – 1200 UTC 21 June 2025 (Click to enlarge)

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Overlapping 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sectors provided GOES-19 (GOES-East) imagery at 30-second intervals over much of the area affected by this severe convection; shown below is Infrared imagery of a large mesoscale convective system over western/central North Dakota and a pair of supercell thunderstorms in eastern North Dakota as they eventually merged and began to move eastward across northwestern Minnesota. Pulsing overshooting tops exhibited infrared brightness temperatures in the -75 to -79ºC range (brighter white pixels embedded within dark black areas) — which represented a significant overshoot of the Most Unstable (MU) air parcel’s Equilibrium Level (EL), according to rawinsonde data at Bismarck ND and Aberdeen SD.

The supercell thunderstorms that developed over eastern North Dakota produced several tornadoes, including an EF3-rated tornado near Enderlin shortly after 0400 UTC that was responsible for 3 fatalities (NWS Grand Forks damage survey) **NOTE: after further investigation, Enderlin tornado #1 was upgraded from an EF-3 to an EF-5; specific details are available here. This was the first EF5-rated tornado in the US since 20 May 2013 in Moore OK**. Hail as large as 3.00″ in diameter also was reported with these supercell thunderstorms. The highest wind gusts associated with this derecho event included 111 mph in eastern North Dakota and 106 mph in northwestern Minnesota.

30-second GOES-19 Clean Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images with time-matched (+/- 3 minutes) SPC Storm Reports plotted in white, from 0040-0715 UTC on 21 June (courtesy Scott Bachmeier, CIMSS) [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

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Wildfires produce pyrocumulonimbus clouds in Alaska

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images with an overlay of the FDCA Fire Mask derived product (above) showed that a wildfire southwest of Nenana, Alaska (METAR site PANN) produced two pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds late in the day on... Read More

1-minute GOES-18 Clean Infrared Window (10.3 µm, left) images and Red Visible (0.64 µm) images with an overlay of the Fire Mask derived product (right), from 2301 UTC on 20 June to 0400 UTC on 21 June [click to play MP4 animation]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images with an overlay of the FDCA Fire Mask derived product (above) showed that a wildfire southwest of Nenana, Alaska (METAR site PANN) produced two pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds late in the day on 20 June 2025 . The pyroCb clouds exhibited cloud-top 10.3 µm infrared brightness temperatures (IRBTs) in the -40s C (denoted by shades of blue to cyan) — a necessary condition to be classified as a pyroCb — with the first pyroCb developing at 0027 UTC on 21 June, and the second pyroCb forming at 0226 UTC. These were the first confirmed pyroCbs in Alaska for the 2025 wildfire season.

Another wildfire just east of Healy Lake, Alaska later produced a larger pyroCb, developing at 0326 UTC (below).

1-minute GOES-18 Clean Infrared Window (10.3 µm, left) images and Red Visible (0.64 µm) images with an overlay of the Fire Mask derived product (right), from 0100-0700 UTC on 21 June [click to play MP4 animation]

The coldest cloud-top IRBT exhibited by the Healy Lake pyroCb was -57.12 C at 0607 UTC (below) — colder than the -43.66 C and -49.01 C IRBTs for the two pyroCbs produced by the wildfire southwest of Nenana.

GOES-18 Clean Infrared Window (10.3 µm, left) image and Red Visible (0.64 µm) image + Fire Mask derived product (right) at 0607 UTC on 21 June, with a cursor sample of the coldest pyroCb cloud-top infrared brightness temperature [click to enlarge]

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