Western U.S. on Jun 17, 1996
7:23 PM MDT in the afternoon.

This image shows a pattern of convection spread in a northeastern direction by strong shear in the wind speed. Cumulonimbus clouds have developed on the eastern side of this area of convection and the northen ones have well developed anvils.

Some of the thunderstorms are shown in more detail in the views below.

The small streak in central Utah is actually a forest fire.

Thunderstorm shadows over the Texas Panhandle
7:23 PM MDT in the afternoon.

Towering cumulus cast long shadows over the northern part of the Texas Panhandle in this close-up view. The storms on either side (NE and SW) show well developed anvils. The speed shear is apparently weaker in this area than farther north since the convection clouds are spread out less.

The heights of the towering cumulus may be estimated from their shadows. The altitude of the sun must be known, this may be estimated from a map showing solar altitudes for this satellite pass. This gives the sun's altitude as about 7 degrees as seen from the Texas Panhandle. The lengths of several shadows were measured on a ground corrected image giving 45 to 50 thousand feet for the cloud tops.

Large thunderstorm anvils
7:23 PM MDT in the afternoon.

These anvils spread out at about 35000 feet above sea level as measured by their shadows. The anvil top in eastern Montana (the northern of the 3 big ones) is 150 miles across as measured by a ground corrected image.