Satellite Liaison Blog

So, it’s no secret. . .Hurricane Patricia is mean and is disrespecting the records and will soon visit Mexico in a most unwelcome way.  With a current intensity of 175 kts (200 mph) and a central pressure that is a mindboggling 879 mb, this hurricane has joined the elite list of “most powerful storms ever recorded on Earth!”  I would like to give you some satellite perspective of this incredible storm and I will let the animations do most of the talking.

GOES-13 Visible imagery animation valid on 10/23/15.

GOES-13 Infrared with the GLD-360 Lightning Density overlaid valid from 10/22/15 – 10/23/15.

The GOES-13 Infrared animation above with the GLD-360 Lightning Density product (produced at OPC) shows the intense bursts of lightning around the eyewall during the rapid intensification stage overnight and continuing into this afternoon.  Typically this indicates weakening, but due to the relative lack of lightning in the outer bands (away form the northern band near the Mexico coast), I would hypothesize it’s more due to the intense thunderstorms activity in the eyewall with cloud-top temperatures near -90C.

GOES-15 Infrared animation showing Hurricanes Olaf and Patricia valid on 10/23/15.

Not to be outdone here, Olaf is also flexing its muscles with an intensity near 100 kts, but pales in comparison to Patricia.

Meteosat-10 Air Mass RGB animation of South Atlantic 934 mb low valid on 10/23/15.

Not to be completely outdone, a massive extratropical storm is strengthening in the South Atlantic Ocean north of Antarctica which the GFS initialized at 934 mb!

This is truly an incredible day and I didn’t even touch on the recurvature of Typhoon Champi, the heavy rains occurring and expanding from Texas into Louisiana, as well as the 3 hurricane-force storms that the Ocean Prediction Center is anticipating over the next couple of days in the North Pacific and North Atlantic!!!!  These are busy days and I’ll try to post more to keep everyone updated with more satellite fun!

Thanks for reading!