Data on this website (if you click through to 5 May 2022) shows regions where the RCM constellation has produced data. There are very small footprint scenes (shown below) over the Red River of the North, where flooding is ongoing (blog post 1; blog post 2). The Normalized Radar Cross Section (NRCS) imagery within those small footprints is shown sequentially, from south to north, above. The NRCS imagery gives very high-resolution snapshots of flooded regions. This NRCS image from 00:13:39 has the largest extent of flooding within it.

A single image that shows the 6 scenes, aligned from south to north, is available here. (Warning: It’s large)

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Data were also available from earlier in May. Compare this RCM2 NRCS image from 00:29:27 on 3 May to this RCM3 NRCS image from 00:05:41 on 4 May to this RCM3 NRCS from 00:13:39 on May 5th. Flooding has expanded slightly over the two days.

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First thunderstorms of the year around here. @DaveSnider @capture907 @AlaskaWx pic.twitter.com/xeMhNiLSiU

— Brian Brettschneider (@Climatologist49) May 5, 2022

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed these isolated thunderstorms as they moved north-northwestward up the Susitna Valley (northwest of Anchorage).

In the corresponding 1-minute GOES-17 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (below), the coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures of the thunderstorms were around -35ºC (darker blue enhancement).

A toggle between Suomi-NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images around 2201 UTC (below) included a plot of available NUCAPS sounding points from NOAA-20.

The NOAA-20 NUCAPS profile for the green (infrared + microwave) sounding point 25 miles WSW of Big Lake (below) diagnosed a surface parcel CAPE value of 616 J/kg, with a Lifted Index of -3.  

A later toggle between Suomi-NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images and 2345 UTC is shown below; the coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperature of the thunderstorms was -38ºC (near Big Lake), which closely corresponded to the altitude of the Equilibrium Level on the NUCAPS profile.

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The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) on GOES-16 and the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS, additional information here) on the International Space Station (ISS) both observe lightning. The GLM has nadir resolution of approximately 8 km, and is in geostationary orbit, about 36000 km above the Earth’s surface. In contrast, the LIS has a resolution of approximately 4 km, and it’s on the ISS, only 400 km above the Earth’s surface. Both sensors detect the optical signal of the lightning. The animation above shows 2 minutes of LIS Flash Events plotted (in yellow) on top of 5-minute aggregates of GLM Flash Extent Density (updated at 1-minute time-steps). The animation below shows the same LIS observations, but plotted in black, on top of GOES-16 ABI Band 13 imagery. Many of the LIS flash events are colocated with cold cloud top as defined by the GOES-16 Band 13 (10.3 µm) brightness temperatures — meaning that the optical signal is strongest there. That’s not always the case though, as shown in this image with LIS data from 13:19:48.

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1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed abroad arc of fog/stratus that persisted for much of the day across parts of eastern Virginia, Chesapeake Bay and the Delmarva Peninsula on 03 May 2022. Since this fog/stratus deck — which was on the cold side of a quasi-stationary frontal boundary — was slow to dissipate, it held daytime temperatures in the 50s and 60s F (in contrast to the 70s F in cloud-free areas east of the front, and 80s F west of the front). By the end of the day, some of the colder air and stratus had sagged southward across extreme northeastern North Carolina (including the northern end of the Outer Banks).

Afternoon thunderstorms reached strong to severe levels as they approached the frontal boundary, producing 1-inch diameter hail and damaging winds (SPC Storm Reports).

1-minute GOES-16 Visible images with overlays of the 5-minute GOES-16 Fog Depth product (below) provided an estimate of the fog/stratus deck thickness, helping to highlight which portions might be slower to dissipate.

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