{"id":15474,"date":"2014-04-30T23:59:57","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T23:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=15474"},"modified":"2014-05-01T22:41:56","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T22:41:56","slug":"mesoscale-convective-system-along-the-gulf-coast-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/15474","title":{"rendered":"Mesoscale Convective System along the Gulf Coast region"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Radar-estimated<\/a>

Radar-estimated Storm Total Precipitation for the 24-hour period ending at 13:47 UTC on 30 April<\/p><\/div>\n

A large Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) developed ahead of a slow-moving cold front<\/strong><\/a> and moved over the Gulf Coast region of the US on 29 April<\/a> – 30 April 2014<\/a><\/strong>, producing record rainfall totals (WeatherUnderground<\/strong><\/a>) and creating widespread severe flooding across parts of southern Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle. The 24-hour WSR-88D Storm Total Precipitation as visualized using the SSEC RealEarth<\/strong><\/a> web map server (above)<\/strong><\/em> showed swaths of radar-estimated precipitation in excess of 10 inches (violet color enhancement)<\/em> — but some locations reported actual storm total rainfall amounts exceeding 20 inches (NWS Mobile\/Pensacola<\/strong><\/a>).<\/p>\n

AWIPS images of the MIMIC Total Precipitable Water<\/strong><\/a> (TPW) product (below; click image to play animation; Atlantic sector animation<\/a>)<\/strong><\/em> indicated that there were multiple northward surges of TPW values in the 45-50 mm or 1.78-2.0 inch range (darker orange color enhancement)<\/em> during the 28-30 April time period.<\/p>\n

\"MIMIC<\/a>

MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product (click image to play animation)<\/p><\/div>\n

4-km resolution GOES-13 10.7 \u00b5m IR channel images (below; click image to play animation)<\/strong><\/em> displayed large areas of unusually cold GOES cloud-top IR brightness temperatures\u00a0(colder than -80\u00ba C, violet color enhancement)<\/em> — in fact, the coldest GOES-13 10.7 \u00b5m IR cloud-top brightness temperature seen was -86\u00ba C<\/strong> at 12:15 UTC.<\/p>\n

\"GOES-13<\/a>

GOES-13 10.7 \u00b5m IR channel images (click to play animation)<\/p><\/div>\n

This MCS also produced very large amounts of cloud-to-ground lightning (below; click image to play animation),<\/strong><\/em> with the highest number of 15-minute interval lightning strikes being 5379 negative<\/strong> and 697 positive<\/strong> at 11:15 UTC.<\/p>\n

\"GOES-13<\/a>

GOES-13 10.7 \u00b5m IR channel images with cloud-to-ground lightning strikes (click to play animation)<\/p><\/div>\n

A 1-km resolution MODIS IR image at 04:11 UTC on 30 April (below)<\/strong><\/em> displayed a minimum cloud-top IR brightness temperature of -87\u00ba C<\/strong> (darker violet color enhancement)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"MODIS<\/a>

MODIS 11.0 \u00b5m IR channel image<\/p><\/div>\n

375-meter resolution (mapped onto a 1-km AWIPS grid)<\/em> Suomi NPP VIIRS 11.45 \u00b5m IR channel images (below)<\/strong><\/em> displayed a minimum cloud-top IR brightness temperature of -90\u00ba C<\/strong> (dark violet color enhancement)<\/em> at 06:57 UTC on 29 April.<\/p>\n

\"Suomi<\/a>

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

1-km resolution POES AVHRR 12.0 \u00b5m IR channel images (below)<\/strong><\/em> exhibited a minimum cloud-top IR brightness temperature of -93\u00ba C<\/strong> at 10:12 UTC and 11:07 UTC on 30 April.<\/p>\n

\"POES<\/a>

POES AVHRR 12.0 \u00b5m IR channel images<\/p><\/div>\n

Brightness temperatures seen on a single-channel IR image do not always indicate the true cloud top temperature value — but in this case, the -93\u00ba C value (which was also seen on the corresponding POES AVHRR 10.8 \u00b5m IR image)<\/em> agreed with minimum value on the POES AVHRR CLAVR-x<\/strong><\/a> Cloud Top Temperature product. The POES AVHRR Cloud Top Height product indicated values of 15-16 km in these areas of extremely cold IR temperatures (below)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"POES<\/a>

POES AVHRR 10.8 \u00b5m IR channel, Cloud Top Temperature product, and Cloud Top Height product at 11:07 UTC<\/p><\/div>\n

As we have seen with previous cases of strong convection exhibiting intense overshooting tops, nighttime Suomi NPP VIIRS 0.7 um Day\/Night Band imagery (below)<\/strong> showed that this MCS produced a large pattern of concentric mesospheric airglow waves that could be seen traveling away from the storm for a considerable distance.<\/p>\n

\"Suomi<\/a>

Suomi NPP VIIRS 0.7 um Day\/Night Band image<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A large Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) developed ahead of a slow-moving cold front and moved over the Gulf Coast region of the US on 29 April – 30 April 2014, producing record rainfall totals (WeatherUnderground) and creating widespread severe flooding across parts of southern Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle. The 24-hour WSR-88D Storm Total […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":15475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,11,16,12,26,53,3,49,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avhrr","category-goes-13","category-heavy-rain-flooding","category-modis","category-poes","category-real-earth","category-severe-convection","category-suomi_npp","category-viirs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15474","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=15474"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15499,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15474\/revisions\/15499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}