I found it nice to change the default color scheme on the prob severe procedure. The default colors sceme doens’t provide high contract between different levels of probability of severe. I changed the color scheme to highlight higher values of prob severe.

-JB

Just wanted to point out in the above two LAPs images. The color bar associated with number of CAPE is NOT fixed. This can cause some confusion when one model run is being actively overwritten with a new one. In this case the 22Z was overwritten with the 23Z model. The color for around 3000 j/kg dropped from Yellow/Orange to Green/Yellow. I believe this may be due to lower end of the CAPE spectrum being dynamic with runs (in this case -500 switched to -1000). It may be an idea to permanently fixed color bars to keep this from becoming a problem for the non-number oriented mets. Yes, they/we do exist!

Grant H.

I issued a severe t’storm warning for Linn County thanks to the Prob of Severe/MRMS data (bottom left) product and also looking at the NearCast (top right) which showed me that the environment was unstable to keep the storm severe.  Shortly after, I looked at the MESH (top left) and it shows hail around an 1″ or so and then a spotter reported 1″ hail in Alburnett which is right near the 1″ area.  All and all these products were good and my warning was verified. ~ Vollmar

Well… unfortunately, my first crack at this tool has not gone well. When I initially pulled up the tool, it looked fine but then at some point, I had closed the Tracking Meteogram tab and could not figure out a way to pull it back up without reloading it all over again. I consulted with folks and we could not figure out how to bring a closed tab back up. It is unfortunate because I had already created a track and my points so I had to redo it.

Another problem I ran into was when the tab was opened, the meteogram would sporadically go blank/missing. Additionally, I received constant red banners that said An internal error occurred during: “Loading Tracking Meteogram.,” whether the meteogram was visible or missing. Lastly, I was testing the meteogram with KDVN 0.5 Z/V products and the Z meteogram did not line up temporally with V. Every time a new radar scan would come in, the V meteogram would update with the latest scan but the Z meteogram increased in the amount of points on the x-axis without accurately or correctly updating the time (x-axis)/max reflectivity value (y-axis).

I do like the ability to move individual points (instead of the entire line like with similar tracking tools in AWIPS-I) and it was interesting to be able to increase/decrease the circle size to capture certain storm features. I also like the capability that it has to offer to be able to see trends laid out in graph form for a particular product or set of products.

~Linda

I loaded the the base velocity product and then the meteogram program and it seemed to work well initially, but as the radar product updated the meteorgram split into two boxes, one for 8 bit and one that just indicated velocity. It later added a 3rd box that included 4-bit after the screen updated again.

-JB

Just wanted to add that on some of these storms I have been a little slower on the draw to warn. This is due to examining other new products such as LAPs CAPE and composite reflectivity MESH, while also participating in a round table discussion with some extra students on why and how they impact the mesoscale forecast, how newer dual pol products interact with the old legacy products, and examining the new prob of severe function that surrounds these storms.

MESH seems to be doing excellent here. However MESH and Prob of SVR do not capture  information of the latest lowest scan because the volume is not complete yet. It is important to use Prob of Svr as a trend tool and seeing a quick graph of Prob of Svr rising would be very helpful.  (Again a tie in to SCAN for ease of graphing would be wonderful. )

Grant H.

I loaded the surfaced based CAPE product from the vLAPS and below is the 1-hr forecast. The interesting area is over lake MI where the water temperature is still very cold, generally in the 40s F, and the model is indicating SBCAPE values of 1500-2500 j/kg over the central and southern area of the lake. This seems to be overdone given the very cold surface temperatures.

-JB

I decided to look back at the NSSL-WRF Simulated Satellite Imagery (top left) and it is pretty close to the actual IR satellite (top right).  You can also see the MRMS radar (bottom left) that it had the idea of a cluster of storms breaking out in central Iowa to N. Illinois.  The only issue I would say is it may have been slightly slower (30 min-1hr) with initializing the convection.  Other than that it has it timed pretty well after. I like it! ~Vollmar

Visible satellite imagery indicates a few overshooting tops associated with the convection from central IL back west into central IA. The over-shooting top product did highlight the region over northern IL (where currently a golf ball size hail report was just received) but the ones to the west were not highlighted. The ones to the west must not have been large enough of an over-shooting top to trip the algorithm. Since the one indicated did product the big hail it tends to add confidence to use of the product.

-JB