15 August 2004 0005 RHIs to near cell, 35 deg & 50 km. Most of the cells out there look basically the same, small with relatively intense cores up to frz level or so, and little anvil. By the time the anvil gets going the cell is drying up. 0015 Manual reset to ensure sync. 0019 RHIs to convection near 50 deg, 75 km. 0042 Switching PRFs. Enough sectors on garden variety convection, I say! 0045 ClimoFar, 720 Hz 0116 Scattered popcorn convection continues. Hints of something more organized near the scope's edge up north, but Guasave radar and IR satellite aren't too impressive. 0214 There has been a slight increasing trend in precip coverage off the mtns, decreasing trend over the mtns. Overall, precip coverage is best described as scattered. The strongest storms are at the edge of the scope. 0235 Storms up north looking pretty good, but mostly 120 km and beyond. Definitely increasing echo covg up there tho. 0247 SE storm at edge of scope looks really good too - organized and over 50 dBZ. 0315 ClimoShallow as 6.7 tops everything right now. Storms are OK strengthwise, but too far away to not get topped quickly. 0330 Restarting in ClimoFar because ClimoShallow turned out to push topping these storms just a little too much for my tastes. 0400 James Done arrives. Two systems on the scope; one at 120degrees 100km away with a couple of active cores (elevated 55-60dBZ) and the other more stratiform in nature in the 0-90degree sector ~120km away. 0415 This sequence (climofar) didn't start automatically so I manually started it at 0416. Will cut this scan short ot resynch to the 15 minute mark. 0441 Reset to climoshallow since the highest angles in climofar were seeing nothing. 0456 Restarted climoshallow and took the first 3 elevation angles before restarting again at 0500. The more southerly system is developing new convective cores. 0600 Southern system failing to organise and the convection is becoming more 'popcorn' (single cells) in nature. 0730 Both systems have been dissipating and continue to do so. 0800 Land-breeze front now ~20km offshore. 0840 Cell triggered just offshore 120km south of the radar. 1040 Those cells didn't do much and have now largely died out. 1210 Brenda Dolan taking over. Not much at all on the scope, just some small stuff in a line off the coast to the Northwest and a weak cell to the SE. ClimoShallow doing a fine job. Can see a fine line out over the ocean. 1343 Everything has pretty much died. The most exciting thing is a fine line extending along the coast from 80km SE to 60km NW. 1422 One tiny little cell to the ESE of S-Pol at range=18km. Visible from S-Pol (very tall and skinny!) I don't think we are topping it, but I dont' think it warrents a change to ClimoNear or ClimoFar! 1439 Some growth to the NW of S-Pol at a distance of ~160km. Will keep an eye on this. 1555 Back to nothing on the scope. 1625 Some minor things are trying to pop up, but at ranges >100km. 1654 Might be a cell trying to grow 30km from S-Pol to the NNE, will keep an eye on it to see if ClimoFar or ClimoNear is necessary to top it. It is in the mountains, so hard to tell what it looks like. 1722 We are not topping the cell at ~10 azimuth, 40km range,(reflectivities in the mid 40's). Since that is the only thing out there, going to change to ClimoFar at 1730 to see if 14deg will top it. Also looks like the beginnings of the afternoon convection off the mountains to the NE at about 120km. 1732 Might think about doing a 135 micro sector scan since there is absolutely nothing over the ocean. Will keep an eye on it. 1757 Despite the nearness of the cell to the NNE, we are topping it with climofar. New convection over mountains is still >120km, not worth sampling in micro...yet... 1824 Cells at >120km range seem to be organizing more and moving off to the east. 1834 Looks like som new development of cells around 60km. The cell near 60deg azimuth has a core at 4.7deg of near 50dBz. 1857 Will switch to ClimoNear in order to top cell NNE at 30km. 1927 Cell clost to SPol at a range of 20km or so. Barely topping it in ClimoNear! However, I don't see it within visual range of SPOL... 1936 More small cells are starting to pop up within 60km of SPOL. ONe of them has reflectivities near 50dBz. I think now would be a good time to switch to Micro. 1945 MicroNear135 with RHI on cells near 25 deg. Sector covers most, but not all, of existing convection. 2003 RHIs to storms near 90 deg, have some 60 dBZ in them aloft. Rotating PPI CCW to cover Intensifying cell near 335 deg. 2015 RHIs to 335 deg storm. The PPI sector is well populated by popcorn convection. 2030 RHIs to 75 deg storm. 2045 Manual reset to ensure sync. RHIs to cell at 352 deg. The plan is to get back to climo scanning, hopefully by next sequence. 2109 Finally found Don - we are switching PRFs back. Would have liked to have done this sooner. Running ClimoNear @ 720 Hz and will reset on the 15-min mark. 2115 Manual resync of ClimoNear. The mountains are well filled with loosely organized multicellular storms. The PPI sectors were really too narrow (and too limited in range) to catch the full flavor of what is occurring. Regardless, we got another 1.5 hours of mtn-forced convection. There is also some echo well to our northwest, along the coast near the edge of the scope. 2122 Movie shows mix of eastward and westward propagation with these cells. 2143 ClimoNear topping everything but a cell near 29 km, 35 deg. 2148 There is now a whole line of cells to the NW, running along the coast. However, the strongest cells are very far out. Also, the mtn activity is looking increasingly more organized. 2216 At the mesoscale level, there is now a line of convection running from the NW edge of the scope down thru the SE edge, with additional loosely organized convection over the mtns to the NE. This line has grown increasingly easier to distinguish with time. GOES vis imagery clearly demonstrates that this line is convection that has blown up along the sea breeze front. 2301 There continues to be increasing organization along this sea breeze front. In addition, there is some deflection of the line to our SE, which connects the sea brz convection to some mtn storms. The mesoscale organization of the current precipitation system demands continued climo scans. In this case, storms are close enough to continue requiring ClimoNear. 2330 Nice phase shifts thru SE portion of line, as it is well situated right along a radial. 2335 Movie loop shows gradual disorganization trend in mesoscale situation. 2350 Movie shows gradual oceanward propagation of southern portion of breeze front - land breeze kicking in, possibly aided by outflow from mtn convection?