26 July 2004

0045	Swithcing back to climoFar - not much happening - yawn

0100	still some high anvil blowoff - going back to near to stay above it.  vis satellite loope showing most activity over plateau region well to our east

0220	iq froze - reboot

0245	back to climofar

0300	Gustavo at radar

0600	The few existing cells (~80 km to the north of S-Pol) seem pretty shallow.  Cells are topped with an antenna elevation of 6.7 deg.  Therefore, I switched to ClimoShallow Mode.

0915	A cluster of cells appeared to be reaching levels higher than those measured in Climo Shallow Mode. The cluster is moving NWward, and is found 60-100 km NE of spol.  Another cell appeared to the NW of radar (~40 km).  I changed the scan sequence to ClimoNear

0930	The closer cell cannot be found at lower levels, so I decided to switch back to ClimoFar to get better vertical resolution on the cluster instead

0950	Infrared satellite images show that no significant weather is found near the radar.  So I gave Kyle Holden (the tech working this shift) the OK to call the rest of the tech staff to bring the radar down for maintainence between 12-14Z.

1200	Simona at radar.

1210	Radar down for maintainence work

1400	I have decided to let the engineers keep working on the radar.  Satellite images do not show any thing of interest within few (>300) km of s-pol.  There was a relatively small system that was moving from the south along the coast that I was keeping an eye on, which appears to have dissipated in this last hour.  Few shallow clouds are the only evident things both from satellite images and visual obs.

1800	Radar still down.  Nothing happening - seems like the best day so far to get work done.

1940	Satellite image is showing a convective cell popping up to the east (~100 deg) of S-Pol @ 130 km - we have asked to take the radar back.

1958	Radar back up in climofar mode.

2015	For some reasons that are not clear, the first volume scan that was started was 1958 does not have the 0.8 deg scan?  Dont know why!!

2230	Some nice cells have been developing over the mountains to the E of S-Pol.  Beam w/ cell being topped at 16 deg to N km, E w/ s-pol at ~ 65 km, we switched to ClimoNear.  RC On Site.

2300	Echoes definitely more "solid" than last few days.  X-section on cell to our NE (60-100 km distant) showing 40+ dBZ at 12+ km - tops to 18 km.  3+ dB Zdr signature and Zdr column to near 8 km.  Kdp phase shifts near 3 deg/km.  Echo motion toward W-NW.  Maz 12 Z sounding still showing between 700-400 mb - will be interesting to see if this is gone by 00 Z sounding - nearby increas in activity suggests this is the case.