GOES-16 (GOES-East) Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm), Night Fog BTD (10.3 µm – 3.9 µm) and Nighttime Microphysics RGB images (above) displayed the thermal signature — via a single warm pixel — of a fire that resulted from a BNSF train derailment (media report) in Raymond, Minnesota at 0602 UTC (1:02 AM CDT) on 30 March 2023.  Although the fire itself was relatively small (only 3 train cars were burning) and patchy clouds were drifting overhead, the subpixel sensitivity of thermal anomalies is very good with the 3.9 µm spectral band (and any products which include 3.9 µm data).

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Tropical Cyclone Herman has upgraded to Tropical Storm status and currently sits in the Eastern Indian Ocean, approximately 1600 km from the coast of Western Australia. It has been measured to produce gusts up to 55 mph. As of yet, the storm poses no threat to human populations and is not forecast to make landfall. However, its outer rainbands could bring heavy precipitation to Indonesian islands Sumatra and Java.

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1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images (above) include an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density — and showed the distinct circulation of a middle-tropospheric closed low (400 hPa analysis) as it moved northeastward across Illinois and Indiana into southern Lower Michigan on 25 March 2023. Isolated clusters of brief lightning activity were seen across the region, but there were no reports of thundersnow. A number of locations in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin received heavy snowfall, with several new daily records being set.

The corresponding 1-minue GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images below helped to highlight areas of mesoscale banding where precipitation rates were enhanced (some sites reported snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour).

Later in the day, as clouds cleared along the back edge of the storm system, much of the southwest-to-northeast swath of fresh snow cover was revealed in GOES-16 Day Snow-Fog RGB images (darker shades of red) and Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images (brighter shades of green).

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Microwave estimates of snowfall rate (SFR) are available at this website, and imagery during the day on the 25th are shown below. The heavy band of snow is apparent early in the morning of 25 March; by afternoon, it has shifted eastward to hug the Lake Michigan shoreline in Wisconsin.

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Severe thunderstorms traveled across the Southeast United States on Friday 2023-03-24. In Mississippi, at least 25 people were killed by tornado outbreak. Notable damage was experienced in Rolling Fork and Silver City, MS. The governor issued a state of emergency on Saturday, the following day.

NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC) issued a total of 32 tornado reports for the area on 2023-03-24. The Weather Forecast Office in Jackson, Mississippi warns of continued severe weather for the remainder of this week, through 2023-03-31.

RealEarth allows users to layer weather data products over one another, allowing you to view multiple weather products for a specific event. Here, we look at NEXRAD Radar Reflectivity with ProbSevere. ProbSevere is a product developed at UW – Madison CIMSS and aims to assist forecasters in determining areas that may experience severe weather, such as tornadoes. ProbSevere uses a combination of satellite data, ground-based data, and numerical weather models. It can be thought of as a probability of severe weather. Note the area of severity over Rolling Fork, MS at the 1:00 UTC timestamp in the animation below. A bright magenta outline surrounds the Rolling Fork area. This corresponds to when a tornado was spotted from the ground, around 8:00pm local time.

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