31 July 2004 0000 Nice 'mini' MCS to North - some elevated Zdr; lots of phase shift - will it hold together? 0034 Mini-MCS holding together and inching towards the NOAA site. 20m/s rear inflow jet. Second trip at 355deg azimuth, lots of phase shift, Zdr column up to 8.5deg. Maybe close to severe? 0039 System accelerating towards profiler site. Will run profiler scan after next 2 scans. Nice gust front with cell; passed over profiler site. 0045 Precip over profiler -> went to profiler site. 0100 Successfully ran profiler scan - basically 1.5 times. Back to climo-near 0124 System propagating SW; precip over profiler site. Gust front propagating towards SPOL. Widespread coverage to E/SE. Convective system at 045deg, 60km, propagating fast towards SPOL - it has rear inflow of 15m/s 0140 System to north falling apart - cold pool moving too fast. 0141 System to NE holding together 0159 Nice cell in NE quadrant at range ~40km 0300 Nesbitt out. Gustavo on duty. 0315 Large cluster entering SPOL range fron NNW. Still maintinaing Climonear sequence to top a few close cells to the radar. 0430 All echoes below 14deg. Switched to climofar to get better vertical resolution on the convective cluster to the NW of SPOL. 0515 Cluster is moving over the Gulf of California and decaying 0735 Most echoes decaying. A small cluster of cells id developing ~WSW of SPOL. Switch to climo0near to top if necessary. 0745 Switched to climonear. Started sequence 25 seconds late. 0800 Scan started on time. There was no need to interrupt the previous sequence since it finished on time. 0915 All echoes decaying. 1100 Decay, decay, decay. Time for climo-shallow. 1200 Simona here 1217 Climoshallow shows that there are some cells developing very close to radar (~20km) that we're not topping. CLimoshallow had just finished the 2 rainmaps, so I stopped it and started climofar. I wiull resynch at 1230. Actually, the latest scan at 6.7deg shows refl up to 45dBZ. Those two cells are both in the 20-40km range and one is just to the west, the other to ~south. If climofar doesn't top it I will switch to climonear. 1230 Switched to climonear. Cells were not being topped by climmofar. 1240 Scan at 16.4deg el shows cell at 20km to west of SPOL has reflectivities of 55dBZ also a new cell has formedand is now ~20km from SPOL to SSW. Will stay in climonear to top these close cells. 1245 Checking that schedule is on time. No need to resynch. New scan sequence started right on time. 1334 Still in climonear. Precipitating cells are still visible within close range of radar. The cells to the west of SPOL has weakened and has started dissipating. 1415 Cells which started to the SW of SPOL are starting to organise, while propagating to the east. The line of cells has a tilda shape. Probably cells to the SW and cells in the foothills merged together. 1550 Things have started dissipating - convective cores are dying away. Big stratiform region left over. 1557 This system has been dying out. Two shallow clouds were seen to be forming, but still very shallow. 1600 Taken first 3 angles for rain map. Then radar down for a solar scan. 1620 Rainmap taken. Light rain over radar. Switching to 1000Hz PRF and doing vertically pointing scan with both Ka and S bands. 1645 Radar back to surveillance scan in climo-shallow mode. 1700 Resynch, rainmap. 1718 IQ froze - rebooted. 1730 There is a cell which has been growing ~35km from radar, still topped in CLimoFar. 1800 Nesbitt on Duty in 1000 PRF mode for Ka scanning 1830 720PRF mode. Climo mode. Zebra; Cid down 1930 Went to 960PRF -> Micronear135 scanning storm at 50km range to the north - centered at 25deg to cover most of echo. 2030 Switching to micronear90 with center at 15deg 2034 Tried to switch to 135 during scan -> couldn't bump to next scan. Will get as far as can and reset at 2045 2055 Going to 720PRF -> echo covers more than 135 2100 Running climonear -> test pulse set incorrectly - reset correctly in 1.31deg scan at 2102 2201 Scan timer missed mark - restarted at 2201 2220 Scan stopped again - restarted at 2218 2230 Climonear restarted - will it make it? 2252 Cells conglomerating to NE, E - will SPOL get hit? 2305 IR temps <-70C - looks like we have an MCS on our hands 2318 Interesting velocity couplet at 093deg at 60km. Time to go storm chasing? Particle ID indicates hail at 6km, 40dBZ up to 14km. 2352 MCS continues to move south with 55dBZ at sfc and -80C cloud tops. Strong velocities at upper levels -> 30-40m/s out of WNW, sfc winds shifted to SE at SPOL.