Storm Cells that Dont Move...

Just found this to be interesting. Not everyday that you see an entire region stand still on radar for nearly an hour.

Cool pic.


Source | Wunderground.com @ 3:30AM CST 5/11/07

That is really cool looking! Usually those cells blow right through. Sure can cause a lot of distruction when they're just sitting there. They cause enough problems when they're moving quickly! Thanks for the pic!

I could be very wrong about this, but some of those blips may be radar anomalies.
You'd need a weather guru to verify, but I've seen similar things that weren't rain at all, just due to temperature changes, and of course, I don't remember the technical explanation.

I am not familiar with the area, but effects such as fog, "ground clutter" (houses, cars, trees, towers), and smog can effect this sort of doppler system. We have storm chase vans with our local weather service, and we get a very good education on how the systems work from the local weather guys every storm season.

We have already met our yearly average of rain. There has been a system stalled above our area for about 10 days now, swirling around over New Mexico and West Texas, dumping massive amounts of rain over Oklahoma, new Mexico, Chihuahua Mex, and Texas.

Seen a few twisters and some baseball size hail on a few occasions recently, too. My desktop wallpaper on my house computer is a live doppler radar image of my area.

I guess I should clarify here...

There are obvious green ground-clutter clouds all over the above image. Thats not what I thought was interesting.

What I thought was cool were the small storm cells here and there (dotty yellows and reds). They appear to sit almost motionless over the course of 50 minutes.

And again, I suspect no anomaly or conspiracy here. Just though it was a cool picture. I've just never seen storm cells across a region that large look almost motionless for that long.

the same thing has been happening here in waxahachie,south of dallas. i farm and i am used to seeing a storm on the horizon, and getting inside, but lately, i watch these storms for hours with little movement. last night i got no measureable precip while my buddy, less than one mile away, recieved 1.5" in less than 3 hours. we have been in a strange weather pattern for the last month or so

yea I live in New Mexico and the recent storms tend to have periods of moderate to heavy rain fall for the first 30 minutes to an hour and then they're followed by no rain fall and just thunder and lightning. It was enough to put the power out for 1/3 of the city for 2 and a half hours. The weather has been very unusual this year since we only average about 2'' of rain fall a year but we've already surpassed that now. I say it's global warming but I can't tell you if it's because humans caused it or if it's just one of earth's natural cycles where there are cooler and hotter periods. (for ex: The Eocene and the Pleistocene)

[edit on 13-5-2007 by leira7]

[edit on 13-5-2007 by leira7]

Its most likely the radars set to “clear air” mode. There are two different modes on a Doppler radar and Clear Air Mode is where they set them when there is no significant precipitation to show. The other mode is Precipitation Mode, of course.

Clear Air Mode
Clear air mode is the normal mode of operation and is used when there is no significant precipitation in the area. In this mode the radar is VERY sensitive and will detect even minute echoes. Clear air mode utilizes VCP31 or VCP32 and takes about 10 minutes to produce an image. Note that in the winter months, some radar sites will go to Clear Air mode even if there is light snow in the area. The added sensitivity of this mode allows the detection of snow showers since snow generally reflects much less energy than other forms of precipitation.
Precipitation Mode
When the radar detects significant precipitation in the area, it will automatically change to Precipitation mode. This mode is designed to provide higher resolution for relatively strong echoes so the radar becomes less sensitive. It generally utilizes VCP21 and produces an image every 6 minutes. There is also a special type of Precipitation mode sometimes called "Severe Weather" mode. This mode operates like normal precip mode, but utilizes VCP11 and produces an image about every 5 minutes. This mode is only used for research or for extreme weather events like hurricanes or tornadoes.

I am right off the I44 corridor in the doppler images, and Friday night felt like a well lit night. I sensed UFO activity, but did not see anything. The last really good day time UFO I saw within 100ft of me was during a stormy afternoon and the clouds seemed to just stay stationary in the sky.

Originally posted by defcon5
Its most likely the radars set to “clear air” mode. There are two different modes on a Doppler radar and Clear Air Mode is where they set them when there is no significant precipitation to show. The other mode is Precipitation Mode, of course.

Clear Air Mode
Clear air mode is the normal mode of operation and is used when there is no significant precipitation in the area. In this mode the radar is VERY sensitive and will detect even minute echoes. Clear air mode utilizes VCP31 or VCP32 and takes about 10 minutes to produce an image. Note that in the winter months, some radar sites will go to Clear Air mode even if there is light snow in the area. The added sensitivity of this mode allows the detection of snow showers since snow generally reflects much less energy than other forms of precipitation.
Precipitation Mode
When the radar detects significant precipitation in the area, it will automatically change to Precipitation mode. This mode is designed to provide higher resolution for relatively strong echoes so the radar becomes less sensitive. It generally utilizes VCP21 and produces an image every 6 minutes. There is also a special type of Precipitation mode sometimes called "Severe Weather" mode. This mode operates like normal precip mode, but utilizes VCP11 and produces an image about every 5 minutes. This mode is only used for research or for extreme weather events like hurricanes or tornadoes.

Good information. However, I have already mentioned that the majority of the green clouds on this image ARE ground clutter, not rain. What I found interesting were the actual storm cells (yellow and red) that do not seem to move very much. There are only a few of them hiding out there amongst the clutter. They are south of Nashville, northeast of Little Rock, north of St. Louis, just west of Louisville, northwest of Atlanta, and near Knoxville.

[edit on 5/13/2007 by damajikninja]

The green represented wide spread flooding last friday night in this area and the little yellow and red cells were freak thunderstorms in the area that passed from SW-to- NE