Florida Convection - May 11 2026

 Today we examined several experimental satellite products, LightningCast V2, Synthetic GXI, and Solar Zenith Angle - Adjusted (SZA) Imagery, OCTANE, and Lightning Stoplight over north central Florida. It was a relatively quiet convective day across the CONUS, especially for mid May with the only area of significant convection over north central Florida.

While I was already very familiar with the LightningCast V2, the Stoplight and the SZA imagery, the product that sparked the most interest to me or was most excited about its future capabilities  was the synthetic GXI imagery, which uses the 0.91 µm and the Water Vapor Transmittance (WVT) or the ratio of the 0.91 µm/0.86 µm channels.  Once these two new channels become available on the Next Generation of GOES satellites, GeoXO, I believe these two new products will become extremely useful in determining moisture gradients or moisture pooling and it would be of greater utility than the current Split Window Difference (SWD) product available from the current GOES Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI). In particular, the WVT image below (top right panel) clearly showed a moisture gradient (darker colors representing higher TPW vs brighter color colors representing lower TPW) associated with a cold front sinking into the Gulf Coast states.

Figure 1 (above): Four Panel Display of GeoXO imagery showing the 5.5 µm and the WVT products at the top left and right respectively, and the “Clean” Window IR and VIS channels at the bottom left and right respectively.

Figure 2. WPC Surface Analysis valid 18 UTC Mon May 11 2026 showing cold front extending from the Carolinas southwestward to the Gulf Coast states to along the U.S.- Mexico border.

Hurricane Specialist