I had a choice – either go to the bonfire on the beach and get rained on, or head back to my quarters. So, I did what any red-blooded meteorologist would do. I headed for the bonfire so that I could watch it rain with a bunch of like-minded KWAJEXers. Just at sunset we retreated to the picnic shelter and watched the first real rainstorm since I arrived. This wasn't just rain, it was my version of a doctor's first patient or a student's first test.

The 6:30 a.m. weather briefing had showed that the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) was becoming more active, with one loose band of rain showers to our south, and another to our east. The forecast models showed the eastern band becoming more active and moving north of us. Would we get anything out of it, meaning that I should call for four weather balloon launches, or was it to be another quiet day that only warranted two launches? After a long time trying to match the satellite pictures with the model forecasts and talking to the forecasting team, I decided in favor of four launches. The rains we got weren't the huge monsters that we really want to study, but it was important not to miss any system at this point.

[Science Minute: The ITCZ is an enhanced region of cloudiness and rain near the Equator that loosely marks the boundary between the atmospheric circulations in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Due to asymmetries in forcing, the ITCZ tends to appear at 5°-10°N latitude, including near Kwaj.]

I'm still figuring out how to keep in touch with the outside world. Yesterday for the first time I called my family and retrieved e-mail from the computers back at my office at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Both calling and e-mail these depend on using the Kwaj telephone system, which is state of the art, but has a comparatively small number of connections to the rest of the world. During the day it is common to get the "all circuits busy" signal, but once you're on, the connections are solid. I learned that there are mandatory water restrictions back in Maryland, such as no lawn watering, due to the continuing drought. Sort of ironic that I'm way out here studying rainfall!

One curious thing about life in Kwaj is that the weekend consists of Sunday and Monday, so tonigtht was the end of the weekend. I think it's because we're most of a day ahead of the States (16-19 hours, depending on timezone). So, Saturday night here is only 5-8 hours behind Friday night back home. Within KWAJEX the distinction is less important because most of us are either working the whole time we're here, or rotating on schedules driven by the number of people sharing the job. The aircraft crews did have a day off today, so we are all wondering if the rain will hold together long enough to warrant a flight tomorrow.

George Huffman