Interesting radar returns from MUX

[Jody Radzik]

For what it's worth to any of y'all, this morning's MUX scans are returning with an interesting pattern of echos.

 

[Greg Blumberg]

Looks like mountain waves. I also know that the MUX area has fog rolling over the mountains from time to time.

That's just my guess.

 

[rdale]

Could you get mountain waves upstream of the mountains though? I don't have any experience with them, but it seems that would be something that happens downwind.

 

[Jeff Duda]

I'm not convinced those are mountain waves either. They're starting out over the ocean, and I'm pretty sure that mountain waves will not form THAT far upstream of a mountain range if they would at all. I don't know what explains the bands, though. But there is some negative EPV there, so maybe it's some sort of CSI.

 

[Jason Foster]

Need a vis sat to go along with this radar. Might help to see more of what is truly going on.

 

[Jeff Duda]

Need a vis sat to go along with this radar. Might help to see more of what is truly going on.

Banded clouds were all I saw. Didn't help figure it out.

 

[Greg Blumberg]

Now that I think about it some more...those look a little bit like chaff signatures too.

 

[Larry J. Kosch]

Marine Layer??

I'm thinking more along the lines of a marine layer being driven onshore by the approaching cold front.

Here's how a marine layer is defined on Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_layer

The current VIS SAT shows the marine layer breaking up now. And I can see a group of showers offshore ready to move inland.

 

[rdale]

Those don't look like chaff returns, they look like some light precip aloft more than anything else.