{"id":72085,"date":"2026-09-02T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=72085"},"modified":"2026-09-04T16:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T16:38:09","slug":"hurricane-lowell-reaches-category-5-intensity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/72085","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane Lowell reaches Category 5 intensity over the Central Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260902_g18_vis_Lowell.mov\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>1-minute GOES-18 Visible images with plots of GLM Flash Points, from 1801-2300 UTC on 02 September<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 <em>(GOES-West)<\/em> Visible images <em>(<strong>above)<\/strong><\/em> revealed mesovortices within the eye of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhc.noaa.gov\/archive\/2026\/LOWELL.shtml?\">Hurricane Lowell<\/a><\/strong> as it reached Category 5 intensity over the Central Pacific by <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhc.noaa.gov\/archive\/2026\/ep12\/ep122026.discus.026.shtml\">2100 UTC<\/a><\/strong> on 02 September 2026. Plots of 1-minute GOES-18 <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goes-r.gov\/spacesegment\/glm.html\">GLM<\/a><\/strong> Flash Points highlighted the intermittent lighting activity within the surrounding eyewall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A larger-scale view of 1-minute GOES-18 Infrared Window images <em>(<strong>below)<\/strong><\/em> showed that the coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures were in the -75 to -80 C range (brighter white pixels embedded within dark black regions).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260902_g18_ir_Lowell.mov\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>1-minute GOES-18 Infrared Window images with plots of GLM Flash Points, from 1900 UTC on 02 September to 0000 UTC on 03 September<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260902_g18_ir_2200utcShear_Lowell.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>GOES-18 Infrared Window images, with an overlay of contours and streamlines of deep-layer wind shear at 2200 UTC on 02 September<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Products from the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/tropic.ssec.wisc.edu\/\">CIMSS Tropical Cyclones<\/a><\/strong> site indicated that Lowell was moving through an environment of low deep-layer wind shear <strong><em>(above)<\/em><\/strong> and was traversing warm Sea Surface Temperatures <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong> &#8212; two factors that were favorable for Lowell&#8217;s rapid intensification (<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260902_dmint_Lowell.png\">DMINT<\/a><\/strong> | <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260902_satcon_Lowell.png\">SATCON<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260902_sst_Lowell.gif\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Sea Surface Temperature analysis on 02 September, with a plot of the track of Lowell<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Visible images (above) revealed mesovortices within the eye of Hurricane Lowell as it reached Category 5 intensity over the Central Pacific by 2100 UTC on 02 September 2026. Plots of 1-minute GOES-18 GLM Flash Points highlighted the intermittent lighting activity within the surrounding eyewall. A larger-scale view of 1-minute [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":72088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,114,30,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-glm","category-goes-18","category-lightning","category-tropical-cyclones"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72085","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=72085"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72106,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72085\/revisions\/72106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}