Physics Tuning - Original Motivation

• Began as an investigation of NAM forecasts over NW California during the July 2006 heat wave of

  • Unusually high dewpoint temperatures;
  • Localized grid-point storms

• Found spurious triggering of shallow convection:

  • Crescent City, CA
  • 5h – 7h into forecast from 2006072212 cycle
  • 10 am to noon local time