GOOD DATA pulled analysis away from raob report!

The rainband moved little between the hour before and after the analysis time. Four aircraft crossed the rain band from northeast to southwest at around 670 hPa. Because the aircraft observations are not all at the same pressure and we wish to compare them to the 700 hPa analysis shown on the cover page of this caselet, all of the virtual temperatures were adjusted to 700 hPa. The left plot shows the virtual temperatures converted dry-adiabatically to 700 hPa while the right plot shows the values assuming a moist-adiabatic lapse rate. The color scales are the same on both. All of these observations were taken between 640 hPa and 760 hPa—refer back to the previous page for each of their pressures.

Several important points stand out:

• The aircraft agree with each other fairly well
  
  
• The temperatures are around 4 to 5 degrees colder in the rain band than immediately south of the rain band
  
  
• The temperatures measured by the aircraft south of the rain band show some variability but generally are in reasonable agreement with those measured by the radiosonde
  
  
• The picture painted by the combination of the radar data, the aircraft data, the Fort Worth raob temperatures, the Oklahoma raob wet bulb temperatures, and the windshift to northerly winds (which may have coincided with the rain band) are all physically consistent and suggest that all the data are good and that a mesoscale cold pool exists in the vicinity of 700 hPa under the rain band.