Visible satellite from February 13,
2000
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The first significant severe weather
outbreak of 2000 occurred on the afternoon of February 13 in the
southeast US. Severe (and tornadic) thunderstorms covered LA, AR, MS, AL,
TN, GA, and FL... prompting simultaneous tornado watches that
covered over 230 counties. Numerous flash flood, severe
thunderstorm and tornado warnings were also issued. (Clicking on the
image will take you to a separate webpage about this storm).
Image courtesy of NASA/GHCC. |
Radar loop from January 25, 2000
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A major winter storm crippled the Atlantic
seaboard, from Georgia to New England, on January 24-26, 2000. Heavy
freezing rain and snowfalls reaching 23" in some locations were combined
with high winds and sub-zero wind chills to create a classic severe
blizzard, commonly known as a Nor'easter. The Low at the center of the
storm reached a minimum pressure of 979mb on the morning of Jan 25th.
(Clicking on the image will start the animation... to view the full-res
version of the mosaic you see here, right-click and "View Image"). Image
courtesy of Intellicast, animation courtesy of WeatherTAP. |
Infrared satellite from April 24,
1999
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This image is from GOES 8 Channel 4 (IR,
~10.7 microns) and was 'taken' on April 24, 1999 at 1945Z. The brightness
temperature scale is listed at the bottom of the image... all temps are in
deg C. Notice the anomalous warm regions surrounded by colder temps over
east-central Arkansas. These are overshooting tops. They are warmer
because the cloud penetrated the tropopause and entered the stratosphere
where the lapse rate is such that temperatures increase with altitude.
Overshooting tops occur in very strong thunderstorms with intense
updrafts. Image courtesy of the RAMM Team at CIRA. |
Radar (base refl) loop from April 24, 1999
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This base reflectivity loop over southern
South Carolina and northern Georgia is from April 24, 1999 and spans 1653
to 1917 EST. The storm moving off the SC coast at the beginning of the
loop created an immense outflow boundary as it dissipated. The outflow
boundary propagated westward very rapidly, and eventually encountered an
unstable environment to the west, spawning a line of strong thunderstorms
SSW of Augusta, GA. Also notice the supercell moving between Columbia
and Augusta (formed near Anderson). This cell had reflectivities of
70dBz+ for several hours, and produced large hail and tornadoes. Images
courtesy of InterRAD. |
Witchita Radar from October 4, 1998
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Two frames (20 minutes apart unfortunately)
comparing the base reflectivity to the storm relative velocity of an
early October supercell over northern Oklahoma (southern tip of Woods
County). One can clearly see the large symmetric mesocyclone embedded in
the supercell by noticing the rapid change in direction of radial winds
relative to the radar site (green is towards site, red is away from
site). The storms in Kansas were also severe, but showed little or no
rotation. Images courtesy of Intellicast. |