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Severe thunderstorms produce giant hail and isolated tornadoes in the Southern Plains

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Visible and Infrared images (above) included time-matched (+/- 3 minutes) SPC Storm Reports — which showed discrete supercell thunderstorms that produced giant hail (as large as 4.00 inches in diameter in southwest Kansas at 2215 UTC and 2343 UTC, and 3.50 inches in diameter in the northeast Texas Panhandle... Read More

1-minute GOES-19 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, left) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm, right) images with time-matched (+/- 3 minutes) SPC Storm Reports plotted in red/cyan, from 2130 UTC on 08 September to 0030 UTC on 09 September [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Visible and Infrared images (above) included time-matched (+/- 3 minutes) SPC Storm Reports — which showed discrete supercell thunderstorms that produced giant hail (as large as 4.00 inches in diameter in southwest Kansas at 2215 UTC and 2343 UTC, and 3.50 inches in diameter in the northeast Texas Panhandle at 2352 UTC) on 08 September 2025. There were also tornadoes at 2257 UTC in Oklahoma and at 0005 UTC in Texas.

Pulses of overshooting tops exhibited infrared brightness temperatures as cold as -75ºC — which represented a ~2 km overshoot of the Most Unstable (MU) air parcel’s Equilibrium Level (EL), according to 0000 UTC rawinsonde data from Amarillo, Texas (below).

Plot of rawinsonde data from Amarillo, Texas at 0000 UTC on 09 September [click to enlarge]

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Effects of a lunar eclipse on GOES-18/GOES-19 SUVI imagery

A total lunar eclipse occurred on 07 September 2025 (Space.com) — and as the Moon moved between GOES-18 (GOES-West), GOES-19 (GOES-East) and the Sun, SUVI imagery was totally obscured. The period that the Moon totally blocked the Sun was from 0840-0928 UTC with GOES-18 (above), and from 0434-0522 UTC with... Read More

GOES-18 SUVI Fe171 (171 Å) images, from 0652-1000 UTC on 07 September [click to play MP4 animation]

A total lunar eclipse occurred on 07 September 2025 (Space.com) — and as the Moon moved between GOES-18 (GOES-West), GOES-19 (GOES-East) and the Sun, SUVI imagery was totally obscured. The period that the Moon totally blocked the Sun was from 0840-0928 UTC with GOES-18 (above), and from 0434-0522 UTC with GOES-19 (below).

The times that the Moon’s edge was beginning to move away from the Sun were 0932 UTC as seen from GOES-18, and 0526 UTC as seen from GOES-19. Several solar prominences were apparent as they emanated from the eastern/northeastern limb of the Sun. These SUVI images were sourced from the SSEC Geostationary Satellite Imagery site.

GOES-19 SUVI Fe171 (171 Å) images, from 0326-0602 UTC on 07 September [click to play MP4 animation]

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Lightning causes a delay during the Eagles vs Cowboys football game

Lightning caused a 1-hour delay in the Eagles vs Cowboys football game at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia (NFL.com) during the evening hours on 04 September 2025 (as a pre-frontal squall line was approaching the area) — the delay lasted from 10:25 pm ET (0225 UTC on 05 September) to 11:30... Read More

Plot of LightningCast Probability and GLM Flash Extent Density at/near Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia [click to enlarge]

Lightning caused a 1-hour delay in the Eagles vs Cowboys football game at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia (NFL.com) during the evening hours on 04 September 2025 (as a pre-frontal squall line was approaching the area) — the delay lasted from 10:25 pm ET (0225 UTC on 05 September) to 11:30 pm ET (0330 UTC on 05 September). A plot of GOES-19 LightningCast Probability and GOES-19 (GOES-East) GLM Flash Extent Density (above) displayed the increase in LightningCast Probability and Flash Extent Density around the time of the game delay.

An animation of 5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 Infrared images with an overlay of Flash Extent Density and contours of LightningCast Probability (below) showed the thunderstorms with satellite-detected lightning activity as they approached Philadelphia and Lincoln Financial Field (the cyan dot just south of Philadelphia).

5-minute GOES-19 Infrared, GLM Flash Extent Density and contours of LightningCast Probability [click to play MP4 animation]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 Infrared images with overlays of GLM Flash Extent Density, parallax-corrected GLM Flash Points and parallax-corrected contours of LightningCast Probability (below) provided a closer view at higher temporal resolution. Lincoln Financial Field is located about 5 miles northeast of Philadelphia International Airport (KPHL).

1-minute GOES-19 Infrared images with overlays of GLM Flash Extent Density, GLM Flash Points and contours of LightningCast Probability, from 0030-0330 UTC on 05 September [click to play MP4 animation]

There was satellite-detected lightning activity just west of the stadium at 0234 UTC, about 10 minutes after the game was initially delayed (below), and very near the stadium at 0240 UTC — close to the time that the Twitter photo of a cloud-to-ground lightning strike was taken (see the bottom of this blog post).

GOES-19 Infrared image with overlays of GLM Flash Extent Density, GLM Flash Points and contours of LightningCast Probability, at 0234 UTC on 05 September [click to enlarge]

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Hurricane Kiko rapidly intensifies to a Category 4 storm in the East Pacific Ocean

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Visible and Infrared images (above) showed the westward motion of of Hurricane Kiko during an 8.5-hour period as the tropical cyclone was rapidly intensifying (SATCON) from a Category 2 storm at 1500 UTC on 03 September 2025 to a Category 3 storm at 1800 UTC and... Read More

1-minute GOES-18 Visible and Infrared images with plots of 1-minute GOES-18 GLM Flash Points, from 1733 UTC on 03 September to 0200 UTC on 04 September [click to play MP4 animation]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Visible and Infrared images (above) showed the westward motion of of Hurricane Kiko during an 8.5-hour period as the tropical cyclone was rapidly intensifying (SATCON) from a Category 2 storm at 1500 UTC on 03 September 2025 to a Category 3 storm at 1800 UTC and then to a Category 4 storm at 2100 UTC. Visible imagery revealed low-altitude mesoscale vortices that were occasionally evident within the eye. Plots of 1-minute GOES-18 GLM Flash Points displayed intermittent lightning activity within the eyewall — and the coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures within the eyewall were in the -80ºC to -85ºC range.

Kiko was moving through an environment characterized by low values of deep-layer wind shear (below), and moving over relatively warm water — two factors that were favorable for tropical cyclone intensification.

GOES-18 Infrared images with an overlay of contours and streamlines of Deep-Layer Wind Shear at 2200 UTC on 03 September

An AMSU-B Microwave image at 1815 UTC (below) displayed a closed eyewall around the time that Kiko reached Category 4 intensity.

AMSU-B Microwave (183 GHz) image at 1815 UTC

A RCM-2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image (source) at 0301 UTC on 04 September (below) depicted a maximum wind speed of 118.35 kts within the eyewall of Kiko.

RCM-2 SAR wind speed image at 0301 UTC on 04 September [click to enlarge]

1-minute CIMSS True Color RGB images created using Geo2Grid (below) showed a larger-scale view of Kiko.

1-minute GOES-18 CIMSS True Color RGB images, from 1800 UTC on 03 September to 0259 UTC on 04 September (courtesy Mat Gunshor, CIMSS) [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

MIMIC Total Precipitable Water images (below) indicated that Kiko (centered around 13ºN and moving between 130ºW and 140ºW) was beginning to tap moisture from the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).

Hourly MIMIC Total Precipitable Water images, from 0000 UTC on 03 September to 2300 UTC on 04 September

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