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Heavy rainfall causes flooding in Grand Island, Nebraska

Grand Island, Nebraska received 6.41″ of rainfall during the calendar day on 25 June 2025 — which set a new record for the date and for any single day during the month of June. 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Infrared images centered at Grand Island (above) included an overlay of the... Read More

1-minute GOES-19 Infrared images centered at Grand Island, Nebraska (KGRI) with an overlay of Total Precipitable Water, GLM Flash Points and 1-hour Precipitation, from 0001-1100 UTC on 26 June [click to play MP4 animation]

Grand Island, Nebraska received 6.41″ of rainfall during the calendar day on 25 June 2025 — which set a new record for the date and for any single day during the month of June. 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Infrared images centered at Grand Island (above) included an overlay of the Total Precipitable Water derived product, GLM Flash Points and 1-hour Precipitation during the 11-hour period  from 0001-1100 UTC on 26 June (which was a period during which a large portion of the 25 June record rainfall occurred — with rainfall rates as high as 1.22 inches per hour).

The same set of GOES-19 imagery that also includes Flood Watch/Warning/Advisory polygons is shown below. Note the appearance of the bold red Flash Flood Emergency for Grand Island area, beginning at 0445 UTC (image | text).

1-minute GOES-19 Infrared images centered at Grand Island, Nebraska (KGRI) with an overlay of Total Precipitable Water, GLM Flash Points, 1-hour Precipitation and Flood Watch/Warning/Advisory polygons, from 0001-1100 UTC on 26 June [click to play MP4 animation]

The GOES-19 imagery at 1100 UTC (below) included plots of 24-hour precipitation — which displayed 7.13 inches at Grand Island (ending at 1200 UTC on 26 June).

GOES-19 Infrared image with overlay of Total Precipitable Water and GLM Flash Points at 1100 UTC on 26 June — with 24-hour Precipitation (inches, ending at 1200 UTC) plotted in yellow [click to enlarge]

Prior to the onset of this period of heavy rain, the GOES-19 Total Precipitable Water value in the vicinity of Grand Island was as high as 1.74 inches (below).

Cursor sample of GOES-19 Total Precipitable Water derived product just northeast of Grand Island (KGRI) at 0003 UTC on 26 June [click to enlarge]

 

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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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