Observations of Supercooled Raindrops in New Mexico Summertime Cumuli

Abstract Observations made in 1987 with the NCAR King Air aircraft and in 1993 with the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology dual-polarization radar have revealed the presence of supercooled raindrops in some New Mexico summertime cumulus clouds. In the case of the radar data, the evidence for the supercooled drops came from a column of enhanced ZDR that extended well above the 0°C level. The in situ data indicated that the supercooled raindrops were observed when cloud base was warmer than about 7°C and the depth of the cloud was greater than about 2.5 km.