CIMSS Satellite Blog

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

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed the development of widespread thunderstorms that produced tornadoes, large hail (up to 5.5 inches in diameter in Texas) and damaging winds (as high as 94 mph in Oklahoma) (SPC storm reports) across parts of Texas and Oklahoma on 20 May 2019.

The corresponding GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (below) indicated that cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures were frequent as cold as -70 to -80ºC (black to white to violet enhancement) with the more vigorous thunderstorms.

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

One interesting aspect of this line of deep convection is that it was effectively blocking the upstream southwesterly flow, creating a band of gravity waves along its western edge — these waves were very evident in GOES-16 Low-level (7.3 µm), Mid-level (6.9 µm) and Upper-level (6.2 µm) Water Vapor images (below).

GOES-16 Low-level (7.3 µm), Mid-level (6.9 µm) and Upper-level (6.2 µm) Water Vapor images [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-16 Split Window Difference (10.3-12.3 µm) images (below) displayed the yellow signature of blowing dust in the vicinity of a cold front that was moving eastward across southeastern New Mexico and southwestern Texas.

GOES-16 Split Window Difference (10.3-12.3 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

During the subsequent overnight hours, these thunderstorms produced heavy rainfall from northern Oklahoma into southern Kansas, causing flash flooding — and rising rivers across that region on the following day were captured by the Suomi NPP VIIRS Flood Detection Product (below).

Suomi NPP VIIRS True Color and False Color RGB images, along with the Flood Detection Product [click to enlarge]

from CIMSS Satellite Blog http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/33284