![](https://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/152000/152870/greenfieldiowa_tornado_oli_20240525.jpg)
Tornado Damage in Greenfield
Downloads
- greenfieldia_tornado_oli_20240525_lrg.jpg (1193x795, JPEG)
- greenfieldia_amo_20240521_lrg.jpg (1395x1163, JPEG)
Metadata
- Sensor(s):
- Landsat 8 - OLI
- Aqua - MODIS
- Data Date: May 25, 2024
- Visualization Date: May 29, 2024
In one of the busiest U.S. tornado seasons in years, National Weather Service meteorologists have confirmed 875 tornadoes as of May 28. One of the strongest and most destructive was a powerful twister that formed in southwestern Iowa on May 21, 2024. The tornado drew a line of destruction for nearly 44 miles and cut through the town of Greenfield, Iowa.
The tornado was one of a rash of twisters that formed when a cold front produced a line of strong thunderstorms that tracked through the Midwest. An especially large and tall storm with rotating updrafts (a supercell) produced an EF-4 tornado, which hit Greenfield with peak winds of 185 miles (300 kilometers) per hour.
The path of damage across Greenfield is visible in this image, acquired on May 25, 2024, with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8. According to storm reports posted by NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center, the deadly twister destroyed homes, downed wind turbines and power lines, snapped trees, and shredded roofs.
Satellite images of the storm system that preceded the tornado offered subtle clues of the destruction to come. The brightness temperature data shown below, acquired with the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, was collected about an hour before the tornado struck Greenfield. White and light-purple cloud tops are cooler than dark-purple and yellow surfaces.
Notice the cooler (whiter) areas of the cloud surfaces. These are overshooting cloud tops—dome-like protrusions from thunderstorm clouds that are driven by convective updrafts. These cloud tops can rise past the tropopause and the anvil portion of a thunderstorm cloud, sometimes punching into the lower stratosphere.
According to Kristopher Bedka, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center, the overshooting top southwest of Greenfield was the coldest and largest one present across Iowa at the time. “This signifies a well-organized storm with a strong updraft,” Bedka said. “When this type of updraft ingests a very unstable airmass with large vertical wind shear, catastrophic tornadoes and large hail are often the result.”
Researchers closely watch for overshooting clouds and other features that herald tornadoes, destructive hail, and bouts of extreme lightning. Bedka and other NASA scientists have developed automatic and innovative techniques for quickly identifying such features in satellite imagery.
“We have applied these techniques to long-term geostationary satellite data records to quantify severe storm frequency and risk,” Bedka added. “This has made it possible for us to provide the reinsurance industry with new and highly detailed insights into severe storm activity and risk that are especially valuable in developing countries without weather radar coverage.”
References
- Axios (2024, May 26) Tornado season is the second-busiest so far in the U.S., behind 2011. Accessed May 29, 2024.
- Bedka, K. et al. (2018) The Above-Anvil Cirrus Plume: An Important Severe Weather Indicator in Visible and Infrared Satellite Imagery. Weather and Forecasting, 33 (5).
- Iowa Disaster Recovery (2024, May 21) Tornadoes, Winds and Flash Flooding. Accessed May 29, 2024.
- Iowa State University (2024, May 24) Greenfield Tornado. Accessed May 29, 2024.
- Khlopenkov, K. et al. (2021) Recent Advances in Detection of Overshooting Cloud Tops From Longwave Infrared Satellite Imagery. JGR Atmospheres, 126(14).
- NASA Earth Observatory (2018) A Cirrus Sign of Tornadoes. Accessed May 29, 2024.
- National Weather Service (2024, May 21) Event Summary May 21, 2024 Tornadoes, Winds and Flash Flooding. Accessed May 29, 2024.
- NASA Earth Science Applied Sciences (2023, October 6) NASA Helps Ensure Success in the Insurance Industry. Accessed May 29, 2024.
- NASA Earth Science Applied Sciences (2020, September 15) Kristopher Bedka: Helping the Reinsurance Industry Understand Hailstorm Risk With Satellites. Accessed May 29, 2024
- USA Today (2024, May 29) You’re not imagining it: There have been a lot of tornadoes this spring. Here’s why. Accessed May 29, 2024.
- Yale Climate Connections (2024, May 23) Another tornado-devastated town: Why so much severe weather this spring? Accessed May 29, 2024.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey, and MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Adam Voiland.
This image record originally appeared on the Earth Observatory. Click here to view the full, original record.