A STUDY OF CONVECTIVE PRECIPITATION AS REVEALED BY RADAR OBSERVATION, TEXAS 1958–59

Abstract

Data collected during the summer of 1958 and the late spring and summer of 1959, by use of an AN/CPS-9 radar located in the Department of Oceanography and Meteorology on the campus of the A. & M. College of Texas, were analyzed to study convective precipitation processes. The formation and growth of convective echoes were studied in relation to the mechanisms of precipitation formation. Consideration also was given to day-to-day variations in convective activity. Pronounced variations were noted in echo growth and subsidence, level of first-echo formation, and echo movements. It is shown that maximum echo tops are largely dependent on the depth of the moist layer. It is also revealed that precipitation in the Central Texas region is frequently initiated by a process involving only liquid water droplets.