Week 3 of the EWP side of HWT was very busy with many distractions due to the Moore tornado and people in and out of the HWT. However, everyone survived and there was good feedback on the GOES-R products despite the GOES-13 outage.
WRF Simulated Satellite Forecasts
It's good to see how the model is handling the environment with this product...e.g., is the fog and low stratus burning off in the model vs reality?
It looked like the real deal.
A loop that compared the simulated vs the observed would be good.
I had training problems with the WES simulation and the simulated IR.
The procedures did not work...there was a work around apparently but I did not realize it.
PGLM
The tracing tool is similar to warn gen in that I could step through pretty quick and develop a track.
I see this as a future product for decision support services when the biggest concern is lightning...there are alot of events where we need to know if lightning is going to happen.
The tool is necessary but its just too time consuming in the warning process and im not sure how to make it better for warning...when lightning is my number one concern then I would use the tool more.
I used the tool in combination with Cloud-Top Cooling...and there was good correlation there.
I'm more of a fan of the cooler colors in the color table.
The flash extent density is excellent at showing the extent of the lightning in the anvil.
Convective Initiation
Although the product was not available for Wednesday and Thursday I saw enough where I would go online and look at the product.
This would be a good product for the mesoanalysis forecaster.
It was also good for cell maintenance and for cell feeders into an MCS that we had on Tuesday.
NearCast
The thte difference is a good product...shows exactly what you want it to.
Cloud-Top Cooling
The product worked very well initially...but then struggled somewhat with convection to the north as there was an anvil cirrus shield overhead.
On Thursday we uses this product quite a bit in a situation when there was more of a cap...so sometimes u would see a signal and then no convection and then again...and then eventually convection would develop. Eventually the convection fired on the strongest of three signals and this shows the utility of the product diagnose when a cap was eroding.
I would not use the product to just issue a warning...not enough confidence.
The CTC product is also useful close to the radar. The Lubbock convection was further from the radar...but the Amarillo storm was close to the radar...when we saw a strong signal there was a hour lead time on severe hail MESH. It's very useful close to the radar useful.
The initial convection was captured well and the product would be best used with other environmental data...know your environment.
Sounder RGB Airmass
I didn't have an opportunity to use the RGB airmass product...unfortunately the training material was limited on this product.