A strong storm with a well defined mid-level mesocyclone entered the western portion of the MKX CWA at around 4:00 PM CDT. At the time, the OCTANE speed product showed a well defined gradient and the divergence product showed fairly high values, indicating that the updraft was quite strong. We decided to issue a severe thunderstorm warning with a tornado possible tag on this cell as a result.

Not long after the warning was issued, we noticed a significant weakening trend in the reflectivity signatures. This weakening trend was supported by the OCTANE products as well, with a much more diffuse gradient in the speed product and lower values in the cloud top divergence. An interesting thing to note, though, is that the Day Cloud Phase imagery looks nearly identical to when we issued the warning, so it did not capture the weakening trend.

Another interesting thing to note is that the IR imagery did not seem to indicate that there was as much weakening either. One image from around the time of warning issuance and one from around the time when the warning expired are shown below.

In all, the OCTANE products seem to be very useful in assessing the strength of a storm’s updraft. Looking forward to gaining more experience with it and the other products throughout the rest of the week.

– EI2018