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Derecho causing severe weather from the Midwest to the Mid-South

By Scott Bachmeier •

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed a long-lived Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) or derecho that produced a swath of large hail and damaging winds (SPC Storm Reports | NWS Nashville) from eastern Kansas to central Tennessee, northern Mississippi and northern Alabama on 03 May 2020.The corresponding GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm)... Read More

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with time-matched SPC Storm Reports plotted in red [click to play animation | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed a long-lived Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) or derecho that produced a swath of large hail and damaging winds (SPC Storm Reports | NWS Nashville) from eastern Kansas to central Tennessee, northern Mississippi and northern Alabama on 03 May 2020.

The corresponding GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images are shown below. Pulsing overshooting tops exhibited cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures around -70ºC (black enhancement).

GOES-16 "Clean" Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images, with SPC Storm Reports plotted in cyan [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images, with time-matched SPC Storm Reports plotted in cyan [click to play animation | MP4]

NOAA-20 VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images, with plots of available NUCAPS sounding points [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images, with plots of available NUCAPS sounding points [click to enlarge]

A toggle between NOAA-20 VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images (above) included plots of available NUCAPS sounding points. The temperature and dew point profiles for the green sounding point south-southeast of Jackson, Tennessee (station identifier KMKL) revealed a very unstable air mass in the pre-convective environment just ahead of the approaching MCS (below).

Temperature and dew point profiles for the NUCAPS sounding point south-southeast of Jackson,Tennessee [click to enlarge]

Temperature and dew point profiles for the NUCAPS sounding point south-southeast of Jackson,Tennessee [click to enlarge]

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Boundary layer wave clouds over Kansas

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed widespread boundary layer wave clouds across much of Kansas and far eastern Colorado on 02 May 2020. Although there was a temporary outage of pilot report data from 18-19 UTC, there was one pilot report of light turbulence over Hays, Kansas (KHYS) at an... Read More

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with plots of pilot reports of turbulence and AIRMET boundaries [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed widespread boundary layer wave clouds across much of Kansas and far eastern Colorado on 02 May 2020. Although there was a temporary outage of pilot report data from 18-19 UTC, there was one pilot report of light turbulence over Hays, Kansas (KHYS) at an altitude of 6500 feet at 2041 UTC. An AIRMET for the potential of turbulence below 7000 feet had been issued at 14 UTC. There was a hint of some wave interference, which may have enhanced turbulence potential.

There was also a subtle signature of these waves seen in GOES-16 Low-level Water Vapor (7.3 µm) images (below).

GOES-16 Low-level Water Vapor (7.3 µm) images, with plots of pilot reports of turbulence and AIRMETs boundaries [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Low-level Water Vapor (7.3 µm) images, with plots of pilot reports of turbulence and AIRMETs boundaries [click to play animation | MP4]

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Fires in the Upper Midwest

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 (GOES-East) CIMSS Natural Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB), Fire Temperature RGB and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above) revealed a small cluster of fires in southeastern North Dakota, as well as isolated fires in far western Minnesota and far northeastern South Dakota on 01 May 2020. Strong winds — gusting over 30 mph at some locations... Read More

GOES-16 CIMSS Natural Color RGB, Fire Temperature RGB and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 CIMSS Natural Color RGB, Fire Temperature RGB and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) CIMSS Natural Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB), Fire Temperature RGB and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above) revealed a small cluster of fires in southeastern North Dakota, as well as isolated fires in far western Minnesota and far northeastern South Dakota on 01 May 2020. Strong winds — gusting over 30 mph at some locations — in the wake of a frontal passage helped some of these agricultural fires to intensify for a few hours, with pyrocumulus clouds and a smoke plume being produced by the cluster of fires in southeastern North Dakota.

GOES-16 derived products such as Fire Power, Fire Temperature and Fire Area (below) allow individual fire pixels to be sampled and characterized — for example, at 2136 UTC.

GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, top left), Fire Power (top right), Fire Temperature (bottom left) and Fire Area (bottom right) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, top left), Fire Power (top right), Fire Temperature (bottom left) and Fire Area (bottom right) images [click to play animation | MP4]

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NUCAPS and dry air in the Upper Midwest

By Scott Lindstrom •

A cloud band passing through the upper midwest on 1 May 2020, shown above in the GOES-16 ABI Visible and Infrared imagery (toggled with NUCAPS products and radar), was accompanied by radar echoes. Would you expect that radar-indicated precipitation to reach the ground?  Gridded NUCAPS fields (shown here with NUCAPS Sounding availability points) show... Read More

GOES-16 ABI Band 2 (0.64 µm, visible) and Band 13 (10.3 µm, infrared) along with gridded NUCAPS fields of 925-700mb Relative Humidity, Midwest Base Reflectivity and NUCAPS Sounding availability points (Click to enlarge)

A cloud band passing through the upper midwest on 1 May 2020, shown above in the GOES-16 ABI Visible and Infrared imagery (toggled with NUCAPS products and radar), was accompanied by radar echoes. Would you expect that radar-indicated precipitation to reach the ground?  Gridded NUCAPS fields (shown here with NUCAPS Sounding availability points) show very dry air in the lower troposphere over eastern Wisconsin.  Individual NUCAPS soundings, one over Lake Michigan just east of Racine, and one over Green Bay, toggled below, similarly show very dry air.

NUCAPS Profiles over Lake Michigan and Green Bay (Click to enlarge)

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