Cloud Top Cooling Signals

The Octane Cloud Top Cooling product provided a strong indication of the continued southwestward development of storms in advance. While in the towering cumulus stage of development, the CTC indicated the stronger updrafts. Later on, those towering cumulus continued to develop into mature thunderstorms. While highlighting the areas that ended up growing, I didn’t notice it flagging any of the bubbling cumulus in areas where storms did not develop. This raises my confidence in the product as being able to use it to identify areas of greater concern. It may be worth noting that high level cirrus hid any potential updraft development in the southern portions of the area. However, in this specific case that proved to be non-consequential 

Figure 1: OCTANE CONUS cloud top cooling at 18:51 zulu. Cloud top cooling can be seen on the line extending SW from the then dominant supercell.

Figure 2: Radar screenshot from roughly the same time as Figure 1.

Figure 3: The OCTANE CONUS cloud top cooling at 1911 zulu. Showering more development and continued signals on the SW flank.

Figure 4: Radar corresponding with Figure 3. Storms continued to develop and intensify in the same region highlighted 20 minutes prior in Figure 1.

-wxboi