28 July 2004

0122	I dumped the rain gauge outside - almost 1.2".

0150	Time to switch to ClimoShallow

0155	Have to watch new development 90-120 deg 180 km out.  12 km tops.  40 dBZ cores.

0200	Started ClimoShallow.

0300	Gustavo here.

1150	Nothing very interesting in the night shift.  There were only two precipitating systems: one nearly stationary at 150 km ESE of S-Pol and another 100-170 km WNW of S-Pol near the coastline.  ClimoShallow the whole night.

1200	Simona & Sarah here.

1518	We noticed that radar didn't sync and had stopped.  Restarted ClimoShallow 3 minutes late.

1537	W have been watching cells that have been forming on a line in the W-SW sector of S-Pol.  These never came closer than 100 km range - we have been running ClimoShallow as we are topping everything in this mode.  Things have been popping up and dying off.

1545	Solar scan.

1638	Began ClimoShallow scan sequence again b/c techs finished solar scan.  As already noted on July 26, 20:15, first scan looks weird.  This is no 0.8 deg scan, also 1.3 deg scan is not complete.  As we are anyway late, we are restarting it at 16:45.

1645 	Restarted ClimoShallow.

1650	There is nothing going on of interest.  So, though radar was down for 45 minutes, we didn't miss much.

1800	Dave Ahijevyc here - didn't see any bubbly clouds on drive from MZT.

1810	Did a quick look - nothing out there but cumuli pancakus (flat cumulus).

1826	Without much to do, looking at 2 km visible satellite loops.  Over last 6 h, several mesoscale cyclonic vortices show up in loop between 108-103 W and 20-30 N.  One is just beyond southeast range of S-Pol.  Moving slowly west.

1900	Still nothing in range of S-Pol (from visible satellite).

1931	Restarted with ClimoShallow.  There is one cell up to 6.7 deg 83 km, 100 deg, just barely.  Others beyond 120 km, behind this cell.  I don't think we missed anything in the last 90 minutes with no scanning.

1945	Had to cut off 0 deg scan to resync start of sequence.

2015	Switching to ClimoFar, as a cell has 35 dBZ up to top elevation angle in ClimoShallow.

2130	East quadrant filling in with stronger cells and at edge of domain, anvil.  Also along near-coast land to the NW.

2245	Storms 40 and 60 km to NE.  Need to switch to ClimoNear.

2246	Satellite shows sea-breeze front is activating deep convection.  It's beginning to collide with SMO deep convection in eastern quadrant.

2330	While every sector over land has high reflectivity echoes, the cells aren't very long-lived or organized.