GOES-16 (GOES-East) True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images created using Geo2Grid (above) revealed the complex motion of ice eddies in the Labrador Sea — within the Labrador Current off the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland, Canada — on 18 April 2020. According to the Canadian Ice Service, this First-year ice was of below-normal concentration.

Thanks to Antonio Vecoli for bringing these features to our attention.

Wide sea ice drawings close to eastern coasts of #Labrador peninsula,as seen yesterday by @CopernicusEU #Sentinel3 #Canada #ocean @ESA_EO @SatelliteSci @weatherdak @CIMSS_Satellite @UWCIMSS @PlymouthMarine @Oceanjournal @futurasciences @RAL_Space_STFC @CanadianGIS @RCGS_SGRC pic.twitter.com/KtEBaaW8M6

— antonio vecoli (@tonyveco) April 19, 2020

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GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Day Cloud Phase Distinction Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (above) revealed the rapid melting of parts of a broad swath of fresh snow cover (green in the RGB images) across the High Pains and Midwest on 17 April 2020. The snow melted quickly in central Nebraska (where storm totals were generally less than 4 inches), but persisted in the Foothills of Colorado (where storm totals amounts of 10-20 inches were common).

A closer look at the eastern segment of the snow cover over eastern Nebraska, southern Iowa and northern Missouri (below) showed the effect of snow-cooled surfaces on suppressing the formation of cumulus clouds as diurnal heating increased into the afternoon hours. Surface air temperatures warmed into the upper 40s to low 50s F in areas where the snow melted — but were held in the upper 30s to low 40s F where deeper snow cover existed near the Iowa/Missouri border (where storm total amounts were as high as 12-16 inches).

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Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm), Near-Infrared (1.61 µm and 2.25 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) images (above) showed visible and thermal signatures of a cluster of wildfires burning west of the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant on 13 April 2020. The fire had reportedly burned about 8600 acres during the previous week.

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A major outbreak of severe thunderstorms (SPC Storm Reports) occurred across the Deep South on 12 April 2020. 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed the development and propagation of deep convection during the 1200-2359 UTC period. The corresponding GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images are shown below.

Some of the strongest long-track tornadoes occurred in southern Mississippi — a closer view of GOES-16 Visible, Infrared and Visible/Infrared Sandwich Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (below) revealed the pulsing nature of overshooting tops — which exhibited cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures as cold as -77ºC at 2038-2039 UTC, about 35 minutes prior to the destructive tornado that moved through Bassfield — and well defined “enhanced-v” signatures were apparent in the Infrared and RGB imagery, with that signature’s warm wake immediate downwind (east) of the overshooting tops indicating the likely presence of Above-Anvil Cirrus Plumes.

1-minute GOES-16 Visible images (above) and Infrared images (below) include plots of time-matched SPC Storm Reports.

NOAA/CIMSS ProbSevere is a tool that could have been used during this outbreak to identify which radar cells were most likely to produce severe weather.  The image below, from here, shows the reports of severe weather, the warning polygons, and ProbSevere locations (a closer view of the Mississippi tornadoes can be seen here).

===== 14 April Update =====

Southwest-to-northeast oriented tornado damage paths in southern Mississippi were evident in a toggle between GOES-16 Visible and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) images (above). NDVI values within the damage path were generally 0.6, compared to 0.7-0.8 in adjacent areas. According the the NWS Jackson storm survey, the maximum path width of the longest-track (~67 mile) EF-4 tornado that began near Bassfield was about 2 miles — the widest ever measured in Mississippi, and one of the widest tornado damage paths ever measured in the US.

In a toggle between Aqua MODIS NDVI and Land Surface Temperature (LST) images (below), LST values were 5-10ºF warmer — low 80s F, darker shades of red —  within the tornado damage path, compared to areas adjacent to the path.

The tornado damage paths were also apparent in a comparison of before (26 March) and after (14 April) Aqua MODIS True Color RGB images (below) from the MODIS Today site. Note that 2 smoke plumes were seen on the 26 March image.

True and False-color imagery from NOAA-20 (from this (temporary) website) also show the damage path.

NOAA-20 True Color RGB imagery of the Mississippi EF-4 tornado damage path that had a maximum with of 2 miles is shown below, using RealEarth.

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A StoryMap of this event in South Carolina, created by the NWS in Columbia SC, is here.

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