1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above) displayed the thermal anomalies (clusters of hot pixels) associated with 2 wildfires burning in western South Dakota on 29 March 2021. One fire began just west of Rapid City around 1530 UTC — which forced some evacuations. A second fire began just north of Interstate 90 around 1730 UTC — which forced the closure of Interstate 90 between Kadoka and Murdo as strong northwesterly winds in the wake of a cold frontal passage (surface analyses) caused a rapid fire run to the southeast. The southern surge of cold air (lighter shades of gray) behind the cold front could also be seen in the Shortwave Infrared images; both fires began shortly before the arrival of the cold front.

Taking a closer look at the fire just west of Rapid City, a 4-panel comparison of GOES-16 Fire Temperature RGB, Shortwave Infrared, Fire Power and Fire Temperature Characterization products (below) showed that this was not a particularly large or hot fire, whose signature was sometimes obscured by clouds moving overhead.

===== 30 March Update =====

On the following day, GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Near-Infrared “Vegetation” (0.86 µm) and Day Land Cloud Fire RGB images (above) revealed the northwest-to-southeast oriented burn scar (darker gray pixels).

View only this post Read Less

NOAA’s GOES-5 VISSR view of a historical outbreak in the Carolina’s in 1984. March 28th and 29th, 1984 saw one of the most destructive tornado events in the history of North and South Carolina.

Infrared Loop:

The coldest clouds appear as darker shades of red. A regional scale IR loop.

Visible Loop:

A more zoomed-in visible loop over the same time range.

H/T Melissa Griffin for reminding us of this case:

#OTD in 1984, one of the most destructive tornado outbreaks in history, swept through the Carolinas. In all, 11 tornadoes raced across SC, including five F4 (wind estimated 207-260 mph). These tornadoes caused 15 deaths, 448 injuries, and damage of over $100 million. #scwx pic.twitter.com/fzI8wLUiAm

— Melissa Griffin (@mlgriffinWX1) March 28, 2021

More background on this case in 1984 was posted by the NWS Willmington office: https://www.weather.gov/ilm/CarolinasOutbreak.

A larger Full Disk “sandwich” image.

NOAA GOES-5 data are via the University of Wisconsin-Madison SSEC Satellite Data Services.

View only this post Read Less

GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images centered on Nashville (above) displayed multiple clusters of thunderstorms that moved across Tennessee during the 27 March – 28 March 2021. The coldest overshooting top infrared brightness temperatures were in the -70 to -79C range. Precipitation ended and clouds cleared as a cold front moved eastward across the state on 28 March.

Hourly images of the MIMIC TPW product (below) showed the northward surge of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico beginning early on 27 March, providing an environment conducive to heavy rainfall.

Plots of Nashville rawinsonde data from 00 UTC and 12 UTC on 27 March (above) and 28 March (below) illustrated the rapid increase in moisture on 27 March, followed by the gradual decease in the wake of the cold frontal passage.

 

 

Here are some of our highest rainfall reports from Saturday morning through this morning and a map of combined radar estimates and observed precip. https://t.co/H9DHgOxCZW pic.twitter.com/Hk8qMxcRc3

— NWS Nashville (@NWSNashville) March 28, 2021

Nashville has measured another 0.94″ of rain since midnight. This gives us a 2-day rainfall total of 6.69″. This surpasses the 6.68″ measured on September 13-14, 1979, and gives us our 2nd largest 2-day rainfall total in Nashville’s history, trailing only May 1-2, 2010 (13.57″).

— NWS Nashville (@NWSNashville) March 28, 2021

---

CMORPH estimates of accumulated precipitation (available in RealEarth) are shown below, with 24-hour totals ending 23:59 on 27 March (left) and 28 March (right).  The darker purple region denotes totals of >100 mm in 24 hours.

View only this post Read Less

The Falcon 9 rocket that was launched on 4 March did not achieve orbit and re-entered the atmosphere on 26 March at just before 0400 UTC (Correction:  Falcon 9 achieved orbit.  What did not occur as planned was the 2nd stage de-orbit burn  The low orbit of the 2nd stage allowed it to re-enter on 26 March, and that is what GOES-17 detected.  Thanks to Mark — see his comment bel0w —  for the correction!)  GOES-17’s ABI detected the re-entry heat signature off the coast of Oregon, at the very edge of the Mesoscale Sector 1, at 03:59:27 on 26 March 2021, as shown above in the Band 7 (3.9 µm) images at 03:58:27, 03:59:27 and 04:00:27. The heat signature was also detectable in the Band 6 (2.2 µm) imagery.

Many thanks to Chris Schmidt, CIMSS, for finding this subtle signature in the imagery!  This tweet from Jonathan McDowell includes many ground-based video captures of the re-entry.

---

The image below, from Tim Schmit (NOAA/STAR), shows the three band 7 (3.9 µm) images, color-enhanced and magnified.  A similar image for band 6 (2.2 µm) is here.

Scott Bachmeier created this 6-channel (Bands 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 at 0.64 µm, 0.86µm, 1.37 µm, 1.61 µm, 2.25 µm and 3.9 µm, respectively) 3-step animation centered on the re-entry time.

View only this post Read Less