22 July 2004 0000 Still running in ClimoFar. Nothing much has happened except some activity in NE sector. 0034 Cell developing to the NE of S-Pol at ~120 km range - core reflectivities are as high as 50-55 dBZ. R-Kdp rainrate ~100 mm/hr. Let's see if it moves any closer. 0230 Echo mass developing to the north, @ ~120 km with tops ~16 km. One of the most exciting things of this shift! Dave, who just got it, reported that there was lightning from the storms every 3 sec or so. 0300 Dave Ahijevych here. 0317 Batch of moisture streaming off higher terrain in the north half of radar scope. Some strong cells 110 km to the north with a few pixels of probable graupel. As mentioned earlier, they were producing lightning 20 or 25 times a minute. 0515 Initiation of stronger cells continues north of S-Pol, now within 90 km. 0750 Now within 60 km. Weaker development 50-100 km SE of S-Pol over last two hours. Everything below 25 dBZ topped. 0845 As storms ease closer, switching to ClimoNear (up to 26.4 deg elev) 0959 Considering profiler scan - small cells overhead at NOAA site. 1001 Started profiler scan sequence (in 720 Hz). 1016 Switched back to ClimoNear. 1110 NOAA profiler still has good rainfall over it. Deep cells now within 30 km, north of radar. 1114 Had to temporarily remove 26.4 deg scan to make up for being late after switching back from profiler sequence. Now it is back in angle list. 1118 Might be a good micro case, but it is not confined to one sector and isn't that intense. 1215 B. Dolan and S. Bordoni take over. We are going to continue the climatology near scan. 1251 Drizze at S-Pol. 1322 Checked the rain gauge. Maybe 2 mm. 1337 Things are dying out for the most part. However, a new cell popped out @ ~40 km range to the south of SPOL with reflectivity in the low 40s. 1415 Nothing much at close range. 1430 We are going to switch to ClimoFar. There are some small cells to the S, SW, within 60 km range from radar, but they seem really small. On the other hand, there seems to be some interesting stuff popping up to the SE at ~180-200 km. This motivates our decision for switching back to ClimoFar. Peak reflectivities of these cells ~ 55 dBZ. 1445 We are going to do a solar cal to help align the Ka-band. Will do the first 3 tilts to get the rainmap, then take it down for ~15 minutes and run the climo again. 1503 Beginning solar cal. 1515 End solar cal, ClimoFar restarted. 1529 Echoes to the SE continue to develop and move north. Stuff over the mountains has pretty much dissipated. 1714 Echoes to the SE have moved northward at range ~100 km. Core dBZ ~45 and tops ~12 km. All of this is actually over the ocean. There is very little activity over land. 1800 RC onsite. Some cell activity initiating within 50 km range. May need to go to ClimoNear to top. 1815 Switch to ClimoNear to top cell ~40 km SE of SPOL. 1830 Cell to our SE continues to grow - now oriented ~N-S similar to previous activity (lining up parallel to low-level flow). Nice low level gust/fine line moving N-NW from cells 60 km south. 1900 CGs (1-2 per min) observed at SPOL w/ audible thunder. 1930 Outflow from nearby conv passing SPOL now - visible in low level display. Time loop showing lots of boundary interactions in our vicinity. Longitudinal roll to SE starting to spread out into amorphous blob - tops to 12-13 km - made some xsections. 2000 Rain at SPOL 2014 Doing vertically pointing scan for Zdr check (killed 0 deg tilt in ClimoNear) 2015 Back to ClimoNear - time loop suggests that this line of conv oriented NW-SE (just to our east) is following gust front/line moving inland. 2030 Switching PRF - going to microphys 135 to cover activity in NE sector. This is a tough call (i.e., where to put sector) since there continues to be echo development to SW - we'll see how it plays out. 2045 Cutting more x-sections - cell ~30 km N as several 60+ dBZ pixels w/ Kdp > 3 deg/km (3.5 deg/km is largest I've seen) - Vivek suspects these are drops with ice cores that are possibly producing anomalously high phase shift for given relfectivity. Zdr cross-sections not indicating much in the way of Zdr columns above freeze level - also no evidence of LDR cap. 2110 So far most intense activity seems to be in our microsector as opposed to activity over ocean - convection is close but not close enough to profiler to warrant prf scans. 2115 Continuing to move 135 deg sector CCW (now centered on 25 deg). Note - email from C. Williams at NOAA-AL disdrometer at profiler site currently is not operational. 2146 Good line approaching profiler - will go to GPM-profiler scan at end of near (~2150 or so). 2154 Running profiler sequence (note that this seq starts with rain map) 2200 Got 2 PPI/RHIs in - then back to micronear 135. 2235 Antenna stuck - restarted MicroNear135. 2240 BB showing up in realtime display over near sector. Activity waning - will probably go back to climo pretty soon. Interesting R(Kdp)-R(Zdr) both larger accums compared to R(Z) over last hr (small drops - ice cores?). Interesting case to look at from rainfall microphysics standpoint. 2245 Back to 720 PRF - ClimoNear mode. 2345 Widespread stratiform rain continuing over much of radar domain w/active convection moving off to N-NW along coastline.