Strong Storms Firing Along Sea Breeze In Western Yucatan Peninsula! (credit: NOAA NESDIS)

DISCUSSION: Earlier in the day on Monday, there were fairly strong storms which formed along a sea breeze front on the western coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in this visible imagery captured by GOES-16 on April 3, 2017.  This was a result of efficient air mass collision across western sections of the Yucatan Peninsula in central Mexico.  As clearly shown in the animated visible satellite imagery (attached above), there was rapid convective development with the associated updrafts across the western Yucatan Peninsula which was enhanced by strong air parcel buoyancy courtesy of more-than-sufficient convective available potential energy.

This animation, which was created with the Advanced Baseline Imager's (ABI) visible-red band (Band 2), clearly shows the "over-shooting tops" and rough texture of the tops of the storm clouds, which is indicative of strong vertical updrafts. In doing so, it provides a glimpse of how GOES-16 will enhance weather forecasting by providing meteorologists with high-resolution imagery of developing storms that they can use to analyze atmospheric or meteorological phenomena in near-real time.


This animation appears courtesy of our partners at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA). To see more animations, visit their website at goo.gl/faexRt.

To learn more about other high-impact weather events occurring across Central and South America, be sure to click here!

©2017 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz