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NOAA-NESDIS
Regional And Mesoscale Meteorology
Team
Satellite Interpretation Discussion
Friday August 21, 1998
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| The following set of images focuses on a Colorado thunderstorm which occurred on 11 Aug.
1998. This storm was peculiar, in that it moved with easterly motion for a significant portion
of its lifetime, on a day in which most every other storm moved with a westerly component. |
| Figure 1 |
Figure 2 |
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Figure 1
12 UTC Denver Sounding 11 August 1998
click image to enlarge |
Figure 2
NOAA GOES-10 Visible at 1900 UTC 11 August 1998
click image to enlarge |
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| Figure 1 shows the Denver sounding from 1200 UTC on 11 Aug. 1998. The flow can be
described as weak westerly, with very little wind found below 500 mb. Figure 2 is a visible
image taken of Colorado at 1900 UTC on the 11th. Its associated loop shows the easterly motion
of the low level cumulus field moving from eastern Colorado. As the leading edge of
the cumulus field flows on the Palmer Lake Divide (an elevated terrain feature in east-central
Colorado, see Figure 4) a thunderstorm develops west of Limon (LIC) at 1930 UTC. This
thunderstorm moves west, with the flow of the low level cumulus, while most every other
thunderstorm moves to the east or southeast. After 2200 UTC the thunderstorm turns south
towards Colorado Springs (COS). It then assumes a westerly component similar to the other
storms. Figure 3 and its loop show the same storm during the same period at 10.7 microns,
where the cold top of the thunderstorm can be tracked. The path of the storm from 1900 to
2330 UTC is shown as the gray line on the topographical image of Figure 4. |
| Figure 3 |
Figure 4 |
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Figure 3
NOAA GOES-10 10.7 um IR at 1900 UTC 11 August 1998
click image to enlarge |
Figure 4
Topographical Image of Colorado
click image to enlarge |
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