5 August 2004

0047	Cells to SE still growing and decaying.  Have put anvil up over radar site.  More isolated cells entering scope from east.

0103	Cells to the SE have dissipated into stratiform rain with max reflectivity of nearly 30 dBZ.  There are cells to the SE of Mazatlan (which also look to be decaying), and some advecting into the east edge of the scope.  A few other cells are up in the high terrain.

0133	Nice bright band signature on the high elevation scans from nearby rain.

0207	Note evolution of bugs coming off the mountains to the north over last half hour - 25-30 dBZ thick!

0300	James Done arrives.

0330	Switched to MicroFar135 to concentrate on a system (MCS) at 90 deg to the radar.  Center azimuth 127 deg.  RHI 90 & 92 deg through convective cores.  I didn't have to sacrifice much else beyond 150 km & outside the sector.

0400	Switched to MicroFar90 since the MCS was contained between 45 deg & 135 deg, and I wasn't sacrificing much else.  Centered at 90 deg.  Deep cells on the western edge (leading edge) ahead of a trailing stratiform region.

0415	Switched to MicroNear90 since the leading convective cells close to the radar (within 30 km) were not topped at 14 deg elevation angle.  The centre angle was also changed to 75 deg to fit the storm in the 90 deg sector.

0430	The convective cells are now ~10 km from the radar so even the 26 deg scan doesn't top the tops.

0445	Switched to MicroNear135, centered at 60 deg, to include new cells withion 30 km triggering north of the radar.  RHI at 96 deg through mainly stratiform region.

0515 	Switched back to ClimoNear because the convective cells were surrounding the radar site > 135 deg.

0630	The system is dissipating overhead.  Further westward moving systems are occurring to the north of the radar.  Switched to ClimoFar since no deep conv within 65 km.

0730	Land breeze front evident ~19 km off the coast.  No convection associated.  System continues to the north.

0800	Convection triggered along the land breeze front < 20 dBZ.  Further development along the SMO.

1020	New convection tracking into the radar domain from the east.

1200	Gustavo and Sarah here.

1400	Stopped recording (ended ClimoFar).

1420	Radar transmitting H pulses only for phase-coded test (velocity ambiguity mitigation).

1454	3 rain maps (0.8, 1.3, 1.8 deg at 720.2 Hz)

1500	PRF at 1000 Hz for Ka-band testing.

1545	Ran solar scan.

1553	Re-started ClimoShallow.  PRF reset to 720 Hz.

1600	Reset ClimoShallow for sync.

1800	Nesbitt & Bordoni here.

1813	Some cells at far range to the east, otherwise nada!

1900	Some cells have been entering the radar domain in the last 15 minutes from the east at a range 150-180 km.  As we are not topping them in ClimoShallow, we switched to ClimoFar.

1921	Going to MicroFar90, center at 80 deg to capture storms coming in east part of domain.

2030	Went to MicroNear90 - convection topped.

2039	Interesting altocumulus deck outside, convection breaking out in foothills as well.

2045	Went to MicroNear135 to capture foothills storms & do some RHIs.  Will do RHIs at 102.2 deg & 103.2 deg.

2056	Convection appears elevated that has developed ahead of squall line.

2123	Doing RHI @ 96.6 deg through 62 dBZ core.

2130	Back to ClimoNear (720 PRF) - echo coverage too great (> 135 deg).

2205	Moderate rain @ S-Pol.

2250	Rain has lightened at SPOL - transition region - heavy rain headed towards profiler site - will do Zdr cal & profiler scan if rain reaches profilers at 2300.

2300	Ran rain map, vert point (3 scans) & 3.5 profiler sets.  40 dBZ @ profiler.

2315	Back to ClimoNear.  Classic MCS (asymmetric) moving N along coastal plain - trailing 40 dBZ stratiform stretched south of radar.  Nice rear inflow jet on velocity signature.  20 m/s jet between 2-3 km from ENE behind systems.  Surface divergence present at radar.