27 July 2004 0100 Nice set of echos crossing Tier 1 (southern most) rainguage network- good case for comparison. 0235 antenna froze - restarting ClimoNear 0245 resetting climo near to get back on schedule 0300 Gustavo on duty. 0748 IQ froze. Rebooted. 1100 Light rain over S-pol. The precipitation is coming from the remanent parts of a westward slow-moving cell. This cell could not be topped on Climo Shallow mode as it was close to the radar most of this shift. Hence, the radar operated on Climo Near mode the entire night (03:00-12:00UTC) 1150 A line of cells appears to be developing near the coastline and moving offshore, most likely connected to the land breeze. 1200 Simona and Sarah When we got in, it was drizzling at S-Pol. 1240 The line of cells that Gustavo reported at 11:50 has been weakening. Cells close to radar (~80-100 km from the coast to SE of SPOL) have died. Only moderatively active cells are now seen at 150-200km. 1255 Checked rain-guage. Except for a few drops (notheing even detectable), rain guage was found empty. 0100 Scope looks pretty empty and boring. There are still some echos with brood precip area to SE (150 deg.), but this is being topped at 5.8 deg. Thinking about switching to climoshallow, as there is not much left around SPOL. 0130 Echos to the SE of S-POL are building up and propogating to NW parallel to the coast.So we have decided to switch to ClimoFar. 0320 There is new growth w/ small cells close to radar in between 30-50km. The prefered spot seems to be along line over ocean to south of S-POL. 0325 Line seems to be "firing up". This line has taken on a funny shape. other mornings we saw this land/sea breeze line parallel to the coast - This morning it has a more funny looking shape, with a kink. Earlier in the morning it looked something like this (illustration in log book). Interesting like feature. 1610 We have 4-5 cells, 2 more significant than the others tha are within 40 km of radar and we are probably not topping them. So thinking about switching to ClimoNear. 1615 Switched to ClimoNear 1700 Activity close to radar has died off. New cells seem to grow to SE, range of ~150-200km. Switching back to ClimoFar. 1806 Dave Ahijevich here. Goin to switch to ClimoNear. Not topping storms 70km to SE. 1815 ClimoNear. 1832 Quite impressive cluster to S-SE. 30-60km range. Tops to 16km, 55dBz cores. There is very close cell to the north. It's growing also. Some growth over higher terrain to the NE too. It's all impressive for this time of day. Doesn't seem to originate from Sierra Madre Occidental. 1845 Radar stopped until 1848. Didn't notice until now. Reset it and will resync at 1900UTC. 1852 Looks like an MCS now with leading convective line and gust front. 0 deg elevation shows 20m/s inbound. 50km south of S-Pol and closing. Should be here in an hour. May interact with new cells to north of S-Pol. 1859 Cut off 0 deg scan to begin next ClimoNear sequence on time. 1923 RC reports raindrops outside. 1934 Surrounded by 50dBz echoes from 330 deg clockwise to 210 deg 10-20km rainge. Fine-scale structure in reflectivity. 63dBz to the NE at 20km rainge. 1952 Gusting from south at 24mph. Almost broke exterior awning. 0.04" rain. 1955 Heavey rain @ S-pol. 1959 Gorgeous are of a gust front 0deg scan. 2002 MCS is living up to its reputation. Audible thunder in container. 2021 Freq. audible thunder inside container. 2 per minute. 2026 1.18" rain from electronic rain gauge. 2029 Scott E. requests vertical pt. when it dies down a bit. There is not much stratiform precip trailing the line. 2037 Still loud thunder every minute or so. 2040 Stopping volume scan for vertically pointing sequence. 2045 Back to ClimoNear. Thinking about NOAA profiler sequence. 2047 1.24" rain in electronic sensor. 25m/s outbound velocity at 0.8deg elevation. 2054 Checked JOSS status page and there's nothing operational at profiler site. No profiler sequence now! 2114 1.2" in rain guage (actual). 1.27" in electronic sensor gauge. 2127 A gust front is very clear, 5-15km ahead of precip. for several hours. Seems awfully far ahead. Cellular convection behind it. Good cold cloud tops over us in IR loops. Gust front running through another cluster of deep cells 80-120km to the NNW. 2133 None of this had obvious ties to the SMO. It all seems to popo up along coastal plain. 2209 40dBz up to 13km in this cluster to NNW. 2359 Switched back to ClimoFar.