Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Forecast Briefings 11/23/2010
To help prepare for tomorrow's snow event, there will be an additional forecast briefing today at 4 pm in RWIC.
Deployment #2 in the books, preparations for #3 underway
Deployment #2 wrapped up yesterday evening after a day of successful data collection. More photos from Deployments #1 and 2 are available on our Facebook page.
Planning is underway for our next deployment for Wednesday and possibly into Thursday. You can read the project forecast discussion at http://stwrc.und.edu/snowdundr/fcsts/dailyfcst.html.
-DOW team.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Deployment #2, early afternoon update
Deployment #2 continues. Visibilities at the DOW site are still in the 1/4 to 1/2 mile range. Winds seem to have increased, too, now 15 to 20 mph. Data collection is proceeding well with the DOW and UND's NorthPol radar collecting volume scans and RHIs. All three radars, including NWS's Mayville radar, are completing scans every ten minutes.
This afternoon's deployment is expected to continue for several more hours and a new crew is expected at the radar site later this afternoon. Having numerous teams of students operate the radar is an important education goal for the project and rotating the crews helps achieve this objective.
The forecast for Wednesday and Thursday still points toward another possible deployment for a significant storm moving in mid-week. Stay tuned for more details, and be sure to check our daily forecasts at http://stwrc.und.edu/snowdundr/fcsts/dailyfcst.html.
-DOW team.
This afternoon's deployment is expected to continue for several more hours and a new crew is expected at the radar site later this afternoon. Having numerous teams of students operate the radar is an important education goal for the project and rotating the crews helps achieve this objective.
The forecast for Wednesday and Thursday still points toward another possible deployment for a significant storm moving in mid-week. Stay tuned for more details, and be sure to check our daily forecasts at http://stwrc.und.edu/snowdundr/fcsts/dailyfcst.html.
-DOW team.
Deployment #2 continues
Snow has increased significantly at the DOW site with visibilities 1/4 to 1/2 mile. Winds have diminished and aggregate snow seems to be the dominant type. NorthPol operations have begun after a hardware replacement this morning, with a PPI volume scanning strategy planned for the now.
Keith, one of our DOW crew members this morning, took a photo of the DOW in the snow for your viewing pleasure. Thanks, Keith!
Deployment #2 is underway
As mentioned yesterday and last evening, snow is expected across the domain today. DOW operations began around 8:30 am this morning. Light snow and fog are observed at the deployment location as of 8:40 am. A heavy snow band is currently impacting the Fargo area and is moving generally northeasterly and drifting slowly north.
Stay tuned for updates throughout the day.
-DOW team
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Monday (Deployment #2)
Latest 00Z models have sped up the system for Monday. Snow should impact the operational domain from approximately 15-3Z (8am-9pm). As a result, operations are expected to commence around the time of the briefing. The briefing will occur as scheduled.
Deployment #1 a success, No operations today.
As mentioned yesterday, Deployment #1 is in the books. The DOW deployed to one of our southern sites, in an optimum triple-Doppler location just as snowfall began. Operations continued through the night and into this morning before closing down as the first round of snow wound down. Several small convective cells, embedded within the main snow band were observed and thoroughly sampled.
This event was close to being a perfect deployment. Hardware issues with NorthPol prevented optimum data collection. An intermittent short in the servo amp limited NorthPol operations to normal volume scans but without RHIs. Luckily a replacement part is scheduled to arrive on Monday. The snow event was also rather weak, and although many bands were observed, the NWS radar operated in clear-air mode. Despite allowing the WSR-88D radar to see most of the snow shorter wavelength radars can view, clear-air mode has fewer vertical tilts. The aircraft also deployed and was able to collect observations near and over the Buxton field site.
Operations are not expected for the remainder of the day. A relatively potent upper low is expected to move out of the Rockies toward the Northern Plains on Monday. The current forecast track brings the heaviest snowfall across southeast North Dakota through northern Minnesota. The last few weather forecast model runs have suggested an increasing chance of snow over the study domain. Operations are possible again on Monday, mainly afternoon, as this system moves through.
Attention then turns toward the middle of the week (around the Thanksgiving holiday). Another storm system is expected to move into the area Wednesday bringing the threat of snow and wind into the study domain once again.
All in all, a fairly active week is expected for the second week of the study.
This event was close to being a perfect deployment. Hardware issues with NorthPol prevented optimum data collection. An intermittent short in the servo amp limited NorthPol operations to normal volume scans but without RHIs. Luckily a replacement part is scheduled to arrive on Monday. The snow event was also rather weak, and although many bands were observed, the NWS radar operated in clear-air mode. Despite allowing the WSR-88D radar to see most of the snow shorter wavelength radars can view, clear-air mode has fewer vertical tilts. The aircraft also deployed and was able to collect observations near and over the Buxton field site.
Operations are not expected for the remainder of the day. A relatively potent upper low is expected to move out of the Rockies toward the Northern Plains on Monday. The current forecast track brings the heaviest snowfall across southeast North Dakota through northern Minnesota. The last few weather forecast model runs have suggested an increasing chance of snow over the study domain. Operations are possible again on Monday, mainly afternoon, as this system moves through.
Attention then turns toward the middle of the week (around the Thanksgiving holiday). Another storm system is expected to move into the area Wednesday bringing the threat of snow and wind into the study domain once again.
All in all, a fairly active week is expected for the second week of the study.
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