There is a good reason why you don't notice a stronger correlation between precipitation and indications of water vapor on the satellite image. The sensor aboard GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) that produces the water vapor image is sensitive to radiation at 6.7 micrometers (um), which is in the infrared part of the spectrum. Water vapor strongly absorbs and emits radiation at this wavelength, which means that the imaging instrument cannot "see" very deeply into the atmosphere from satellite altitude and hardly ever all the way down to the surface.
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