09 August 2004 0020 Some cells in the N-NE section at 30 km range are raining out A new cell is coming up the radar domain in SE 0050 The Real Time Display (RAD1) has been "acting up" in a weird way when we switched to the high PRF. Bob thinks this is due to air conditioning not cooling enough in the transmitter room. This 'thickening' has been going in and out and has finally stopped now. This is the first time I saw this happening. 0100 Convedction is still active to the NW-NE sector of S-Pol, but (?) have high reflectivity cores right to North of S-Pol @ 140km range (>55dBz), appears less organized than before. The cells to the NW appear to bedissapationg away. PID identifies this as hail. Cross-sections show strong low-level convergence. Cells to N of S-Pol at ~30km range still show dBz ~30 at 13.8deg. Also very nice bright band, , from various convection to SE that have left a stratiform region. Bright band is very nice, very evident in reflectivity, LDR and ZDR. When convective core dies out, I will switch back to ClimoFar, to get better vertical resolution on nice storm to the N. Storm to N-NE of S-Pol f~30km happens to show evidence of cyclonic rotation, ~1.5 km height. 0130 Light drizzle at radar. Also lightning can be seen to the West, probably has cells developing very close to the radar, ~15km. 0140 I have3 noticed right now that on NAME catalog WEB page, images have not been stored since 8 Aug 16:15 WHY? 0158 Echoes close to the radar; small, but not topped at 16 deg Staying in ClimoNear. 0203 For some reason, the previous scan was started 3 minutes late (At 01:48) and ended 3 minutes late. I have realized it while antenna was scanning at 0 deg (low elevation) Restarted new sequence at 2:00. Will re-sync at next 15 minutes. 0215 Re-synced. Rain (?) 0239 Lightning and thunder at S-Pol. Probably from cells sight ~20km range from S-Pol. 0300 Thunder still heard NOTE: REAL TIME DISPLAY started looking funny again. I think around 01:00, still looking funny. 0400 James Done arrives Good lightning display on the way in. 1) MCS to the north, active convection on its southern side. 40km from radar. 2) Active scattered cells overhead and out to sea. 3) Small leading line system ~70 deg 100 km away. 0500 Switched to ClimoFar because the near echoes (2) were largely stratiform & to increase the resolution of the far systems (1) & (3). 0515 Isolated cells developing over the water ~45 km off the coast south of Mazatlan. New development over the SMO in the 0-60 deg sector. Thought about 135 sector but it won't all fit. 0600 ~25 km cell of > 40 dBZ at 310 deg 80 km from radar has sent out a cold pool boundary seen at 0.0 deg scan & new cells triggering (all over sea). 0630 New cells have become the dominant storm. 0700 Lines of cells along this second outflow event. i.e., third generation. 0730 Switched to ClimoNear to top the third generation cells ~ 40 km from the radar (due west). Also, the SMO activity (and MCS to north) is now all stratiform. 0815 Third generation sent sent out boundary. New cells already firing ahead of this boundary, along a different boundary. 0930 Fourth generation ~60 km x 60 km areal coverage. Similar to previous generations. Meanwhile, still regions of stratiform rain over the SMO, but have been dissipating over the previous few hours. 1000 Fourth generation outflow seen in 0.0 scan. Isolated cells forming off the Mazatlan coast. 1115 Nice stratiform region extending north of fourth generation cells. Now merging with those isolated cells and intensifying. 1200 Nesbitt here - complex MCS has developed over water near Mazatlan. 1243 Cells rapidly approaching radar - will go to ClimoNear. 1245 ClimoNear - cell 60 km S of radar has 30 dBZ at 14 deg. Tough compromise with ClimoFar because convection extends beyond 150 km. Looks like flow has backed around to SEly at low levels. 1413 MCS continues to slowly creep northward. Convective region is oriented NW-SE with stratiform region blowing off to SW. Convective cells appear very "cellular" vs. being one solid continuous region. Appears that new cell development is favored on the NE side of the convective region. New cells forming just to the west of S-Pol at the moment. Interesting convective "streamer" pattern from these cells. In the velocity pattern there appears to be a large MCV associated with this system within the stratiform region. Movement of MCV is nearly stationary at the moment, or maybe slightly south? 1538 Rain rain maps @ 720 Hz, then stopped antenna & switched to 1000 Hz (Ka band). Restarted "Shallow960" - which is like ClimoNear with 8 deg/sec rotation rate. Will try to gauge timing and optimize. 1545 Resynched, did RHIs at 220, 195, 180, 135, 90, 75, at angles > 135 2x. 1600 Resynched - noted clutter filter is off by default and must be reenabled in 1000 Hz PRF. 1615 Ran scan with 1 km vert resolution between 30-50 km. 1630 Resynched - Enhanced ClimoNear elevations in Shallow960 - added 2.5, 4.5, 6.5. Will do one set of RHIs at the end. We'll see on timing. 1640 Getting some great Ka band observations of 40 dBZ S-(35 dBZ Ka-)band bright band. 1700 Stratiform region beginning to fall apart near S-Pol. Convection has fired to west over Gulf of Calif. May be worth considering changing back to low PRF to capture further away evolution as interest has shifted away from close ranges. 1705 Interesting embedded shallow convection with fall streaks to WSW of radar. 1730 Switched back to ClimoFar (720 Hz PRF). Stratiform nearby falling apart and convection from MCS getting going at > 150 km range to west. Note: Saved MicroMCS360 scan to have next time 360s needed close to radar. It does: 0.8, 1.3, 2.5, 3.2, 4.5, 5.8, 7.1, 8.5, 11.1, 13.8, 16.4, 18.9, 21.5, 23.9, 26.4, and one RHI set. 1747 Resynched. 1800 Resynched. 1845 ClimoShallow MCS pretty much out of the picture. Some storms to E over mountains, but they are quite far away. 2000 Simona here. Switched to ClimoFar, as some convection to E over the mtns is not being topped. 2040 Activity still remains in the form of isolated cells to east and SE. 2115 Isolated cells started developing to NW just along the coast and here now merged into a nice line, some cores are > 50 dBZ. Also convection still going over the mountains. There is some stratiform clouds that are not topped completely at 14 deg (dBZ ~ 10) but I still remain in ClimoFar to keep vertical resolution in the convective stuff. Convection on mountains appears to be moving towards the radar, so we will see what happens. 2130 Line to NW (~140-150 km) showing high reflectivities > 55 dBZ. ... (Illegible writing) ... radar estimated rain rate is ~ 30 mm/h. 2230 New cells have been developing to east of radar ~ 40 km on outflow of convection over mountains. System to NW has new cell development close to radar. High reflectivity was observed to N-NW of S-Pol ~ 90-120 km range. Still running ClimoFar. Safe enough to still top convective cells close to radar and still maintain good resolution of interesting stuff far away. 2315 Convective cells regenerated by convection over mountains propagating to NW (down to SE). High reflectivity cores are to N ~100 km range. Zebra rain estimates indicate that in the best case, this storm has produced up to 40 mm of rain - true? Stratiform clouds are within the range of radar. At 14 deg elevation ~ 20 dBZ, but as before, been keeping better vertical resolution on convection.