18 August 2004

0000	ClimoNear not topping everything.

0004	Running profiler scan as the sea/land-brz conv move seaward over the profiler.  Don't think this will be a particularly exciting hit, main cores are elsewhere.

0006	PID shows drizzle to light rain at profiler.  Thunder at S-Pol as leading edge of conv passes nearby.

0015	ClimoNear restarted, 30 sec late.

0018	N-S conv line ~70 km to our east is quite impressive, heavy rain mixed with hail according to PID.

0030	Manual restart of ClimoNear to ensure synch.

0037	Think S-Pol is going to get overrun by this short conv line immediately to our north.  It has started moving southward recently.  Not able to top it due to its extremely close proximity.

0119	What looked to be turning out as a day for major MCS activity has seen a decline in strong echo coverage, and more coalescing into smaller activity centers.  Still a lot of storms out there, though.

0135	Much of the eastern system is decaying into stratiform.  Far northern system still looks OK but has moved NW away from S-Pol.  The sea/land-brz conv shows some redevelopment as it moves out to sea.

0228	Sprinkling at S-Pol.  Strat rain building near radar.

0230	ClimoFar as mainly just strat near radar at this point.  Northern system looks good but is moving off scope.  Otherwise, just some limited frontal conv along coast, and strat rain filling in much of the eastern sector over the mtns.

0310	Overall transition to stratiform rain continues everywhere on the scope.  However, the northern system that is partially off scope still looks pretty good.  Latest 1.3 deg image is missing a pie wedge in the vicinity of this storm, however.

0400	James Done arrives.

0500	Stratiform regions decaying. Convergence line evident in the 0.0degree scan about 43km offshore. Is this an early land-breeze or, more likely, the outflow boundary from the evening convection.

0515	Switched to climoshallow.

0525	I got a bit confused and restarted climoshallow at 0525 thinking it was a 15 minute mark. Whoops. Will restart again at 0530.

0720	Weak isolated convection at the convergence line.

0835	Almost nothing on the radar scope.

0900	A few small cells developing offshore ~140km south of SPOL.

1000	Nothing on the radar scope.

1207	Brenda Dolan here. Still nothing. Might be a tiny cell out over the ocean at 30km.

1417	One semi-intense cell on the SSE fringe of the scope.

1440	They've asked to have the radar for about an hour for some calibrations.  There is one tiny cell at 30km to the SW, and there is some stuff on the very fringes but nothing significant

1445	I'm letting them have the radar to look at the transmitter.  The stuff on the southern fringes is pretty far (180km). It is a part of a larger cell that is beyond the scope of S-Pol in ClimoShallow which is moving off to the East. We will look again after they have finished to see what is out there before Don does the solar calibrations.

1506	Wow, those guys were quick. We are running ClimoShallow to see what's out there so they can possibly do solar cals (did a rainmap scan at this time). Same cell is still out there, still at 180km, so I'm going to let them do the solar cals for about a half hour.

1600	Back to ClimoShallow. Same cell is still out there, in approximately the same location.  It might have intensified slightly.

1700	Storm to the south is either dying or moving outside our radar scope.

1845	Some convection starting over the mountains.

1906	Stopping the scan so Don can take a picture and position the antenna. We completed one volume up to 6.6deg and the rainfall before stopping it.  Will be back up by 1915.  There is scattered convection starting over the mountains, still at a range >150km.

1909	Well, he was quick and we are starting the scan again.  Will sync at 1915.

1915	Reset in climoshallow.

1933	Starting to see more stuff closer to the radar, will switch to ClimoFar at 1945.

1945	Missed it.  Will start at 2000.

2000	Lang here.  ClimoFar.  Jumped the gun on stopping the prior scan sequence - cut off half the 0-deg scan.

2126	Kinda boring out there.  Diurnal mtn convection is much less impressive than previous days.  ClimoFar continues because I don't want to watch the screen like a hawk to make sure Shallow is topping everything.

2342	Afternoon convection has heretofore remained uninspiring.