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Upon examining the weather on a day-to-day basis, it should be noted that the weather was disturbed <br />th <br />with drizzle and low ceilings in the period May 1-5, 2005. On May 6, however, however, the ceilingshad <br />th <br />lifted into patches of stratocumulus, cumulus and altocumulus clouds. On the morning of May 7 there were <br />showers and thunderstorms in southeastern New Mexico that extended into Plains, Texas,but the rest of the day <br />th <br />consisted of small cumuli and cirrus cover. It was mostly clear in Plains on May 8 with a line of <br />th <br />cumulonimbus clouds along the eastern horizon in the vicinity of the dry line. It was suppressed on May 9 <br />with light westerly winds. <br />thth <br /> Plains had a severe thunderstorm with hail on May 10, but it was dry and suppressed on May 11due <br />th <br />to dry line passage in the morning. On May 12 there was early convection in the Texas Panhandle that had <br />become severe by late morning. A research flight was launched during the early evening in towering cumuli to <br />the southeast of Plains. The entire region of clouds collapsed shortly after the initial salt seeding. The dry line <br />th <br />passed through Plains early on May 13 and the intense convection during the day was confined to the eastern <br />Panhandle. This convection organized into a mesoscale convective system (MCS) overnight. <br />th <br /> Salt seeding experiments took place in southeastern New Mexico on May 14under light easterly <br />surface winds. Although the clouds were of poor quality, having ragged bases and weak updrafts, a salt seeding <br />th <br />mission was conducted during the late afternoon to the southwest of Plains. May 15 brought heavy early <br />morning thunderstorms and low overcast low and middle clouds the rest of the day. There were low overcast <br />thth <br />stratus clouds on the morning of May 16 but no suitable clouds developed during the afternoon. On May 17 <br />the winds were light from the southwest all day and no suitable clouds developed. No suitable clouds were <br />th <br />expected in the local area on May 18, so project aircraft and personnel deployed to Norman, Oklahoma during <br />the late morning for a possible salt seeding mission within view of the NSSL polarization radar. There were no <br />suitable clouds in Norman the rest of the day, and a powerful convective system developed overnight and <br />moved southeast into northeastern Oklahoma overnight. This convection continuedinto the morning of May <br />th <br />19, but no rain fell in Norman. No convection fired on the outflow boundaries during the day and project <br />personnel and aircraft deployed back to Plains, Texas during the late afternoon. No suitable clouds were <br />encountered in route. <br /> The weather was suppressed in Plains on May 20 to 22, 2005. Active convection in east-central New <br />Mexico resulted in anvil cirrus cover in Plains by late afternoon on all days. The suppressed weather conditions <br />thth <br />continued through May 24. Conditions had changed in the local area by May 25with morning outflow <br />boundaries throughout the Panhandle and suitable convection along much of the Texas-New Mexico border <br />during the late afternoon and early evening. A project salt seeding mission was conducted during the late <br />afternoon between Tucumcari and Clovis, New Mexico. The clouds rapidly became too vigorous to work. It <br />rained in the project area overnight and the debris cloudiness from this system continued through most of the <br />th <br />day on May 26. <br /> There were towering cumulus clouds and some cumulonimbus in eastern New Mexico and extreme <br />th <br />West Texas on May 27 and a salt seeding experiment was conducted in relatively weak convective clouds near <br />Dimmit, Texas during the afternoon. There was very heavy rain in the project area during the early morning <br />th <br />hours on May 28, especially just to the east of Brownfield, Texas where the radar estimated that as much as 8 <br />inches of rain had fallen, producing extensive flooding and closure of the road between Brownfield and Plains. <br />The rainfall in Plains, which amounted to 1.6 inches, resulted in the croaking of millions of frogs at the Plains <br />airport throughout the morning hours. The map of the radar-estimated rainfall on May 28, 2005 is provided in <br />Figure 2 below. <br />24 <br />