Case Studies on Convective Storms / Case Study 5, 12 July 1978: First Echo Case

A small, isolated, short-lived cumulus congestus was studied using primarily a10 cm radar, a cloud penetration with an instrumented sailplane, and time-lapse photography froman aircraft some 40 km distant. The radar data reveal a conventional reflectivity history for the northeast Colorado region. The sailplane penetration shows updraft until the reflectivity maximum was reached, then downdraft, and that the precipitation formation was through the ice process primarily. The photography indicates that the cloud top attained -200��C nearly fifteen minutes before the first 5 dBZ echo, which occurred nearly simultaneously throughout a vertical zone from -10 to -30��C.