Giles & Monroe County, Virginia Thunderstorm

With steady convection across Virginia this afternoon, we are continuing to evaluate the efficiency of GOES-R and JPSS products in AWIPS-II.

I had a good indication with how this cell would intensify based on the Lightning Jump Detection Algorithm (LJDA) value of sigma 5.0 early on.

Highlighting the lightning jump sigma value in magenta coloring

However, the Prob. Severe Model was not as impressive with data showing a fairly low percentage of 17%. The cell I was tracking earlier in Floyd County had a better percentage highlighted on it.

A few minutes later, the severe probably finally caught up to 74%, but there were already very impressive dBZ values on the cell.

We have been monitoring NWS chat all afternoon from the local WFO and an LSR came down with this cell reporting 1" sized hail in southern Monroe County an inch deep. That was reported at 20z.

1958z radar scan: Seeing the more widespread impressive 75 dBZ values on the border of Giles and Monroe Counties with the 1" hail reported on the LSR at 20z. Additional LSR's came in via chat with golf ball sized hail in Giles County at 2015z and quarter and golf ball sized hail in Mercer County around Princeton at 2040z.

-BW