A strong mesoscale convective system (MCS) moving southeastward through the Upper Midwest from late 12 July 2015 into early morning 13 July caused numerous severe wind reports across Minnesota and Wisconsin. This MCS was forecast to drop southeastward and continue to produce severe weather during the day on 13 July 2015 (Storm Prediction Center outlook). The toggle above shows the 0420 UTC Terra MODIS 11.0 µm image and the 0400 UTC GOES-13 Sounder DPI Lifted Index product (which is available in realtime here). As the MCS moved over southern Wisconsin, the coldest cloud-top IR brightness temperature on the 0826 UTC MODIS 11.0 µm IR image was -85º C. The strong system continued to move southeastward as very unstable air as diagnosed by the Sounder fed into it (click here for 850-mb RAOB plots). The 0746 UTC Suomi NPP VIIRS 11.45 µm IR image, below, also toggled with a GOES-13 Sounder Lifted Index product, showed a similar story: very strong convection downwind of a source of strong instability. The GOES Sounder can also diagnose Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE), with values from 5000-6000 J/kg seen over southern Minnesota and eastern Iowa.

The Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band, below, which is a source of visible imagery at night, depicted signatures of the active lightning that accompanied this system: numerous along-scan bright streaks over southern Wisconsin were caused by lightning illuminating the cloud as the VIIRS instruments scanned the cloud top. This toggle showed a comparison of Day/Night Band and 11.45 µm Infrared imagery.

A closer view comparing the 0746 UTC VIIRS IR and Day/Night Band images, below, includes overlays of METAR reports and both 15-minute and 1-hour cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. The coldest VIIRS cloud-top IR brightness temperature was -78º C.

At 0805 UTC, the coldest CLAVR-x POES AVHRR Cloud Top Temperature value was -81º C, with maximum Cloud Top Height values of 15 km along the southwestern portion of the MCS.

This image of Radar Composites of the main line of storms was produced by Greg Carbin of SPC and was posted on Facebook on 13 July 2015.

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The video above shows 5 hours of Himawari-8 10.35 µm Infrared imagery from Typhoon Chan-Hom as it moves through the Yellow Sea towards the coast of China (original animated gif here; mp4 here). The location of Shanghai is indicated in the first frame, and this blog post talks about the history of typhoon landfalls near Shanghai. The appearance of the storm in the animation above is relatively constant.

The three water vapor channels from Himawari-8, above, over the course of the past 3 days show a steady northwestward motion and a decrease in the cold cloud tops surrounding the storm, consistent with the weakening that has been observed after peak intensity at ~1500 UTC on July 9. Typhoon Nangka remains southeast of Chan-Hom; Typhoon Linfa has dissipated after having made landfall over south China. Chan-Hom’s path (below) is over progressively colder water and significant intensification is not expected before landfall.

A DMSP SSMIS 85 GHz microwave image at 0946 UTC on 10 July, below, showed that Category 3 Typhoon Chan-Hom was undergoing an eyewall replacement cycle as the small inner eyewall was being replaced by a much larger outer eyewall. Also on the image are 1244 UTC Metop ASCAT surface scatterometer winds, which displayed a large area with winds in the 50-59.9 knot range along the western periphery of the tropical cyclone.

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Tropical Storm Ela began as Tropical Depression 4E about 900 miles east of Hilo, Hawai’i around 03 UTC on 08 July 2015. A comparison of daytime images of Suomi NPP VIIRS 0.64 µm Visible channel and 11.45 µm Infrared channel images (above) showed the somewhat disorganized appearance of TD 4E at 2224 UTC on 08 July — the low-level circulation center (LLCC) was located to the southwest of the clusters of deep convection associated with the system.

About 12 hours later, a nighttime comparison of VIIRS 0.7 µm Day/Night Band (DNB) and 11.45 µm Infrared channel images at 1052 UTC on 09 July (below) continued to show a similar disconnect between the LLCC and clusters of deep convection in the eastern semicircle of recently-upgraded Tropical Storm Ela. The coldest cloud-top IR brightness temperature in the convection closest to the storm center was -78º C. Even though the Moon was in the Waning Crescent phase (at 43% of Full), it still provided enough illumination to aid in the location of the LLCC, as noted in a discussion issued by the CPHC:

TROPICAL STORM ELA DISCUSSION NUMBER   7
NWS CENTRAL PACIFIC HURRICANE CENTER HONOLULU HI   EP042015
500 AM HST THU JUL 09 2015

A 1052Z VIIRS DAY/NIGHT BAND IMAGE WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN HELPING TO LOCATE THE PARTIALLY EXPOSED CENTER OF ELA THIS MORNING.

According to satellite-derived winds products from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site, there was strong divergence and a well-defined outflow channel in the northern quadrant of Ela (below), whose center was located at 19.3º N 145.1º W at 09 UTC on 09 July.

The reason that the LLCC remained exposed from the elements of deep convection was the fact that Ela was encountering increasing amounts of southwesterly deep-layer wind shear as it tracked northwestward  (below).

========================= Added July 10 2015 ============================

The southwesterly shear over the storm decoupled the surface circulation from the overlying convection, and Ela was downgraded to a depression early on 10 July 2015. The 0700 UTC 10 July 2015 image below shows ASCAT Scatterometer winds depicting a low-level swirl well east of Hawai’i; deep convection with the system is hundreds of kilometers to the northeast.

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EUMETSAT Meteosat-10 SEVIRI High Resolution Visible (0.8 µm) images (above; click to play animation) showed the development of an isolated supercell thunderstorm that produced large hail and a violent tornado (1 fatality; estimated EF3 damage) near Venice, Italy (station identifier LIPZ) around 1530 UTC on 08 July 2015. Additional information and imagery is available from meteonetwork.

The corresponding Meteosat-10 Infrared (10.8 µm) images (below; click to play animation) revealed the development of a very cold overshooting top prior to the development of the tornado (1430-1500 UTC) — the minimum cloud-top IR brightness temperature was -70º C (darker black enhancement) on the 1445 UTC image. The overshooting top then rapidly collapsed, as seen by the warming cloud-top IR brightness temperatures on the 1515 and 1530 UTC images. Such an overshooting top collapse sometimes occurs prior to tornado formation in a supercell thunderstorm.

A close-up view of the 1500 UTC Metosat-10 Infrared (10.8 µm) image is shown below, as displayed using SSEC RealEarth.

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