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<br />OPERATIONS: Low level moisture was carried into the region by <br />easterly winds behind the cold front laying south of us. Late <br />evening and morning drizzle, fog and low clouds covered most of the <br />region periodically through Tuesday, By Tuesday afternoon the front <br />moved northward over us as a warm front and began a trend of <br />progressively hotter afternoon temperatures. <br /> <br />Three periods of operations were conducted early in the week <br />prior to afternoon heating becoming extreme in the last half of the <br />week. One <operation was for rain stimulation, another for combined <br />operations of rain augmentation and hail suppression and the last <br />was purely for hail suppression, <br /> <br />The warming trend which began Tuesday quickly brought record <br />high surface temperatures to the region and much drier low levels <br />,in the atmosphere. Al J., times, liilted "below;,are ,in eDT. <br /> <br />MAY 13th - OPERATIONAL DAY #7: Before sunup a clupter of severe <br />storms deyeloped in southern Hamilton County. Only the cloud top <br />aircraft was scrambled; low cloud ceilings and poor visibilities <br />inhibited the safety of cloud base operations. In fact, due to the <br />poor weather at the time in Dodge City, where the cloud top plane <br />is based, the accuracy of the short-term forecast for improved <br />weather conditions within the next two hours was critical to the <br />aircraft launching. However, prior to take-off the aircraft' s <br />tachometer cable broke requiring added time to repair it. <br /> <br />Radar indicated hail in storms passing through southern Kearny <br />County and was likely to have been present in other storms in parts <br />of the counties: Hamilton, Stanton, Stevens, Grant and, perhaps, <br />Haskell. By the time the aircraft launched and reached seeding <br />altitude, the severe storms had decreased in iritensity and moved <br />further east into the target area. Brief J;:ainfall stimulation <br />seeding was attempted in Gray County' at 9 a.m., but conditions <br />weren' t sui table for continued operations ,thereafter. <br /> <br />MAY 14th - OPERATIONAL DAY #8: In early afternoon intense h~ating <br />a 101"1 9' a section of the "dryline" began triggering new storm growth <br />in extreme Southwest Kansas near Richfield. At 1:35 p.m. cloud base <br />planes and the cloud top plane began being scrambled. Storms were <br />expected to grow to become severe (hail-bearing). Seeding was <br />initially performed to increase rainfall in weaker cloud updrafts <br />found at 2:10 p.m. A second plane joined at 2:12 p.m. and began <br />seeding the same storm. Cloud bases were high, near 14,OOD feet, <br />and easterly storm movements carried the storm into northwestern <br />Stevens County. The updrafts found at cloud base continued to be <br />weak. However, at 2:23 p.m. radar showed its first indications of <br />hail in the storm and hail suppression was begun. By 2:56 p.m. the <br />storm had moved well into Stevens County and was exhibiting <br />decreased intensity. Rain stimulation continued. Once again the <br />storm pulsed indicating hail on radar such that at 3:18 p.m. hail <br />suppression again was performed. The storm had moved into <br />northeastern Stevens County by 3:36 p,m. and began dissipating. Two <br />