Day nine - Sat Aug 11

These summer convective storms! They JUST will not leave us alone!!

So we managed mysteriously to get away from Flagstaff at 7:40am (target time was 7:30, so - not so bad!) Flagstaff at 7:40, Kingman about 2 hours later, Barstow about 3 hours after that. PHEW was it hot in Barstow. Hot like when you open the oven door! We did a fast-food lunch stop in Barstow, after a fast gas stop in Kingman, and before a fast gas stop outside Ridgecrest. So you get the idea - lots of driving with minimal stops.

So along the way there was a lot of convective activity in southern California (as well as the FLG area). In particular we ran into a decent cell around Barstow. It generated some strong local winds which did a lot of dust lifting. At the same time there were good-sized cells down around Apple Valley and around Temecula.

And then as we ran up the Owens Valley, we saw very dark storm clouds over the western side of the Sierra, spilling over to the Owens Valley. Up around Big Pine a big cell had just gone east, but all we saw was more evidence of gusty winds - in the form of lots of dust lifting.

Right now (8:15pm), the big question is: Will the skies clear to allow us to see the Perseids Meteor Shower? Right now, it's looking doubtful. Sadness...

Mammatus over the Owens Valley...

Dust lifting in the Owens Valley out ahead of a thundershower...

A rain shaft just east of Bishop...

and a double rainbow over Bishop!

Day eight - Fri Aug 10

Today was Instrument Recovery Day. Meaning...we have sited various instruments in various locations during the week, and since we are leaving tomorrow, we need to get them! The SODAR team headed NW to recover the SODAR, which took MANY willing hands to drag into place since the ground was so soft from the monsoonal rains. A second team headed to Merriam Powell to pack up the radiometer, and also recover the RAWS we set up. The third team has the easiest job - a quick dash 10 miles east of town to grab a second RAWS that has been out since Tuesday.

So we are now in possession of large amounts of data and three dirty vans. My plan for today is to gas up and clean the vans ready for tomorrow. My plan for the students is to do some data analysis! Since we haven't seen much of Flagstaff yet, we are going to head into the downtown area for lunch and a short walking tour.

Here is the RAWS site...Mt. Humphries in the background...

Day seven - Thu Aug 9

MIDTERMS!!! Yay!!!
OK so every class needs a midterm, right? And we offer our midterms "on site",meaning that one day on the trip is midterm day (and the day after we get back is the final!) This year, the final was on Thursday morning from 0830 to 1000. I guess it went OK - I haven't heard any negative feedback yet!

And after a midterm? A break in the form of a short trip to see the Grand Canyon. This year we went in three groups: (A) shopping group - headed for the gift shop, and a drive along the rim stopping every 100 yards; (B) the manic hike group - some kind of serious hike down and up; (C) the mini-hike group - a mild version of manic.

The big story of the day was the weather (duh! That's why we're here!) As we drove NW towards Valle, storms were forming and raining NW of FLG, so we drove through heavy rain, and saw beautiful rain shafts & threatening clouds. As true weather weenies we had to keep stopping to take photos, so it took forever to get to the park.

Our team ("shopping") lunched in Tusayan outside the park, so we didn't roll in till 2:30, at which time a BIG cell was dumping over the entrance area. Lots of lightning, but we still didn't get any good lightning photos. After gift shopping, and driving east along the rim, we joined many others who had pulled over to see - hail covering the ground, like fresh snow! After a lengthy investigation, we decided to call it as "dime-sized" hail. And even when we left the park an hour later, we still found hail on the ground! We also measured an air temperature of just 64^oF!! One other thing we saw was a BIG elk on the road!

Both the hike teams were impacted by the weather. One had to shelter under an awning for 30 minutes to stay out of the pouring rain and hail. Some of these groups ventured out, and got as soaked as if they had jumped into the pool! So there were some cold kids back in the hotel tonight!

So all in all, given that we had expected NO weather, we were all delighted to see these storms, which later moved to the southwest (?) over Kingman. Viewing conditions weren't perfect due to cloud cover, but the canyon will be there for the rest of our lifetimes!

Sun dogs!

Day six - Wed Aug 8

Extreme awesomeness in the form of amazing weather. And lots of measurements. And lots of photos. So here we go...

We are settling into a routine of having a morning weather discussion. We are less tired, and can spend more time discussing - and learning - as opposed to if we do this late in the evening. So again, to our surprise, conditions looked good for convection along the rim. And again FLG looked to be a good location for convection. Hence we decided to split again into three groups...

Group 1 grabbed the SODAR (like radar but instead with sound) and drove north out of town to a site. They managed to set up the SODAR and get it running, so it will sit there for 24-48 hours measuring the state of the lower atmosphere. The group then planned to do some more radiosonde balloon launches, but had left a vital piece of equipment back at the hotel...

Group 2 headed east to check on the status of a RAWS station we left out there a couple of days ago. After which they had permission to go wherever to find storms. Not quite sure which way they went, but they found storms!! And here's the evidence:

Kudos to Chris Mitchell for the lightning photo (and he has more to come!)

And lastly Group 3 headed back to the Merriam Powell Research Station (MPRS). They have been kind enough to host us for the last two years. We had the radiometer shipped there, and it has been sitting outside sounding the entire troposphere 24-7 for several days. Today's plan was to check on the radiometer, and set up a RAWS at the same site. And roughly 2 seconds after two students had finished the set up, an intense convective cell rolled over us. So we spent the next 30+ minutes "sheltering in place". We got to see heavy rain, hail - enough to cover the ground! - and plenty of lightning strikes about two feet overhead!

Hail...video pending (pending blogger talking to my iPhone)

Panic due to lightning...

Midterm tomorrow at 0830, so we spent the evening studying etc. Here is Dr. Chiao giving a lecture about convection...

and here I am talking about inverted troughs...

Day five - Tues Aug 7

Day five...day five...what happened on day five? Well mainly we split into three teams, and I have incomplete stories from the other teams about what they did! The overarching idea was to "chase" and release balloons. One van headed west to the Seligman area, where we expected storms to form. The expected storms failed to materialize, so this group spent a lot of time driving, but not so much doing balloon releases. One van had the IMET radiosonde system on board, and we are about ready to take that thing out and shoot it. The sonde has trouble talking to the software, and I think we may only have one successful sounding with it.

A second van started to head west, but quickly realized that most activity would be in the FLG region, so they stayed locally, and got two good soundings with the GRAW system.

The third van headed east, making it to out near Winslow to follow a big storm. As we got closer we could see three distinct rain shafts associated with the three radar echoes we had been tracking. Since we didn't have a radiosonde system, we set up a RAWS and mostly took photos.

In terms of monsoonal activity, this was a very good day! Lots of storms, and all near FLG!!!

Photos - storms & clouds

Here are some amazing cloud & storm photos we've taken so far.

Saturday Aug 4 near Edwards AFB in the Mojave Desert.

Sunday Aug 5 outside Seigman, AZ.

Sunday Aug 5 on the road into FLG.

Nice eh? On I-40 heading east towards Winslow. From a distance it looked like one cell, but as we got closer there were clearly three cells.

Dum dee dum dum....if you look very carefully, you can see dust being blown up by the gust front winds out ahead of the storm (basically right under the car mirror near the ground, but you have to look closely).

Photos ... students in action

Tuesday, and I am "trapped" in the hotel by pouring rain plus lightning & thunder! Lucky me!!
So this is the perfect time to upload some photos etc. To start, here are "student photos".

Here we are testing our new rain jackets outside Edwards AFB!

Broiling in Needles calibrating our kestrels. Temperature around 103^oF!

Students multitasking: eating hotel breakfast, checking model runs and preparing the weather briefing.

Students crammed into a hotel room for a discussion about instrumentation.

A team of students sets up a RAWS weather station. Storm approaching in the background.

Monday downpour north of FLG. Most of us spent time standing in the ankle-deep puddle. Wind chill in the 50's meant we had the heaters on in the van afterwards!!