Meteorological Images of Monday's Tornadic Storms in the Plains

Chris Dolce
Published: May 9,2016
The damaging, deadly storms that spawned tornadoes in the Plains on Monday produced some eye-popping weather imagery. Here is a collection of radar and satellite images showing the storms as they moved through the nation's midsection.
(LATEST NEWS: Damaging Storms Strike the Plains)
These two radar images from late Monday afternoon show a classic supercell thunderstorm with a hook echo (lower left part of the storm) indicating a tornado that was on the ground just north of Sulphur, Oklahoma, at the time. The images are from just minutes apart.

Radar image at 4:50 p.m. CDT Monday.
(GR2 Analyst)

Radar image at 4:50 p.m. CDT Monday.
(GR2 Analyst)

Visible satellite shows how the storms exploded over Oklahoma Monday afternoon into the evening hours while pushing east. This type of satellite image shows how the storms would appear when viewed with the naked eye from space.

Visible satellite image of the storm developing Monday afternoon into evening.

Click the play button on this animation sent in a tweet by meteorologist Stu Ostro to see how the storms developed minute by minute on visible satellite imagery.

Infrared satellite imagery showed the storms vividly as well. The darker red shadings illustrate the highest clouds tops and correspond to some of the most intense thunderstorms late Monday.

Infrared satellite image of the storms late Monday.
(NASA)

Circled on the first water vapor satellite image below from earlier Monday is the atmospheric disturbance that triggered the formation of the supercell thunderstorms prior to when the storms developed. The second image shows the disturbance and the storms that formed in response to it later in the day.

Circled is the atmospheric disturbance that triggered the formation of the supercells on Monday prior to when the storms developed.

Water vapor satellite of the disturbance and the storms that formed due to it late Monday.

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