{"id":12984,"date":"2013-05-20T22:27:55","date_gmt":"2013-05-20T22:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=12984"},"modified":"2023-05-20T20:46:50","modified_gmt":"2023-05-20T20:46:50","slug":"moore-oklahoma-tornado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/12984","title":{"rendered":"Moore, Oklahoma tornado"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"GOES-15<\/a>

GOES-15 (left) and GOES-13 (right) 0.63 \u00b5m visible channel images (click image to play animation)<\/p><\/div>\n

A devastating tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma just after 20:00 UTC or 3:00 PM local time on 20 May 2013<\/strong><\/a>, causing extensive (EF4 to EF5) damage and at least 24 fatalities. McIDAS images of GOES-15 (GOES-West)<\/em> and GOES-13 (GOES-East)<\/em> 0.63 \u00b5m visible channel data (above)<\/strong><\/em> showed the line of rapidly-developing thunderstorms over southern and central Oklahoma during the early afternoon hours — Moore is located about halfway between Oklahoma City (OKC) and Norman (OUN). Earlier in the day the GOES-13 satellite had been placed into Rapid Scan Operations (RSO) mode (providing images as frequently as every 5-10 minutes),<\/em> while the GOES-15 satellite was placed into Super Rapid Scan Operations (SRSO) mode (providing bursts of imagery at 1-minute intervals)<\/em> after 20:15 UTC. According to the preliminary NWS damage survey<\/strong><\/a>, the tornado began around 19:45 UTC just west of Newcastle, and ended around 20:35 UTC just east of Moore.<\/p>\n

\"Suomi<\/a>

Suomi NPP VIIRS 0.64 \u00b5m visible channel and 11.45 \u00b5m IR channel images<\/p><\/div>\n

An AWIPS comparison of 1-km resolution Suomi NPP VIIRS 0.64 \u00b5m visible channel and 11.45 \u00b5m IR channel images about an hour before the tornado arrived in Moore (above)<\/strong><\/em> revealed the presence of shadowing from overshooting tops and cloud-top IR brightness temperatures as cold as -68\u00ba C. About 30 minutes prior to the Moore tornado, a comparison of 1-km resolution Aqua MODIS 0.65 \u00b5m visible channel and 11.0 \u00b5m IR channel images (below)<\/strong><\/em> again indicated signatures of vigorous overshooting tops, with cloud-top IR temperatures as cold as -76\u00ba C.<\/p>\n

\"Aqua<\/a>

Aqua MODIS 0.65 \u00b5m visible channel and 11.0 \u00b5m IR channel images<\/p><\/div>\n

Comparisons of the 1-km resolution VIIRS 11.45 \u00b5m IR and MODIS 11.0 \u00b5m IR images with their corresponding 4-km resolution GOES-13 10.7 \u00b5m IR images (below)<\/strong><\/em> demonstrated the value of higher spatial resolution to aid in the earlier and more accurate detection of the cold cloud-top IR brightness temperatures values associated with these rapidly-developing convective cells. There were significant differences in the magnitude of the coldest cloud-top IR brightness temperatures with the more northerly cell that spawned the Moore tornado:\u00c2\u00a0 -68 C on VIIRS vs -51 C on GOES, and -76 C on MODIS vs -62 C on GOES. The northwestward shift in the location of features on the GOES-13 images was due to parallax<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Comparison<\/a>

Comparison of 1-km resolution VIIRS 11.45 \u00b5m IR image and corresponding 4-km resolution GOES-13 10.7 \u00b5m IR image<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Comparison<\/a>

Comparison of 1-km resolution MODIS 11.0 \u00b5m IR image and corresponding 4-km resolution GOES-13 10.7 \u00b5m IR image<\/p><\/div>\n

A 250-meter resolution Aqua MODIS true-color Red\/Green\/Blue (RGB) image from the SSEC MODIS Today<\/a><\/strong> site (below; viewed using Google Earth)<\/em><\/strong> shows a closer view of the northernmost cell that produced the Moore tornado, along with hail as large as 3.25 inches in diameter (SPC storm reports<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

\"MODIS<\/a>

MODIS true-color Red\/Green\/Blue (RGB) image<\/p><\/div>\n

GOES-13 sounder Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) derived product images (below; click image to play animation)<\/em><\/strong> showed how the atmosphere rapidly destabilized during the day, with CAPE values in excess of 5000 J\/kg (lighter purple color enhancement)<\/em> at 18:00 UTC east of the stationary frontal boundary just prior to convective development.<\/p>\n

\"GOES-13<\/a>

GOES-13 sounder CAPE derived product images (click image to play animation)<\/p><\/div>\n

Cloud Top Temperature retrievals created using data from the IASI, CrIS, and AIRS polar-orbiting sounder instruments (below; courtesy of Elizabeth Weisz and Nadia Smith, CIMSS)<\/strong><\/em> showed the rapid trend in cloud-top cooling during the 15:56-19:35 UTC timeframe.<\/p>\n

\"Cloud<\/a>

Cloud Top Temperature retrievals from IASI, CrIS, and AIRS sounder instruments<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A devastating tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma just after 20:00 UTC or 3:00 PM local time on 20 May 2013, causing extensive (EF4 to EF5) damage and at least 24 fatalities. McIDAS images of GOES-15 (GOES-West) and GOES-13 (GOES-East) 0.63 \u00b5m visible channel data (above) showed the line of rapidly-developing thunderstorms over southern and central Oklahoma […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,11,43,32,12,47,45,3,49,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-goes-sounder","category-goes-13","category-goes-15","category-google-earth","category-modis","category-other-satellites","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images","category-severe-convection","category-suomi_npp","category-viirs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12984"}],"version-history":[{"count":44,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52420,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12984\/revisions\/52420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}