30-second GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, top) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm, bottom) images (with/without an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density), including plots of 15-minute METAR surface reports (cyan) and hourly Buoy reports (green) [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

Overlapping 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sectors provided 30-second GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (with/without an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density) (above) — which included 15-minute plots of METAR surface reports and hourly plots of Buoy reports as Category 3 Hurricane Idalia made landfall along the Florida coast at 1145 UTC on 30 August 2023. The tropical cyclone produced winds to 85 mph and rainfall amounts as high as 9.31 inches.

Note that the peak wind gust at the Keaton Beach buoy KTNF1 (located along the coast, near the center of the GOES-16 images) was 72 knots at 1100 UTC — then dropped to 0 knots (calm) at 1200 UTC as the eye of Idalia moved over (or very near) the buoy location (below). The raw surface report data indicated that the continuous wind speed was 37.1 m/s (65 knots) at 1120 UTC.

Plots of Pressure (green), wind speed (blue) and wind gust (red) at Buoy KTNF1 (Keaton Beach).

Plot of peak wind gusts at Buoy KTNF1 (Keaton Beach).

NOAA-20 VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images valid at 0715 UTC [click to enlarge]

Several hours prior to landfall, a toggle between VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images from NOAA-20 (mislabeled as NPP) valid at 0715 UTC (above) and Suomi-NPP valid a 0805 UTC (below) showed higher spatial resolution views of Idalia. The eye of Idalia passed close to Buoy 42036, where there was a wind gust of 72 knots — and the strong winds associated with Idalia caused a notable decrease in water temperature on 30 August (due to the upwelling of cooler sub-surface water).

Suomi-NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images valid at 0805 UTC [click to enlarge]

A larger-scale view of the NOAA-20 VIIRS Day/Night Band image is highlighted in this blog post.

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