Despite all clouds having formed in a similar maritime environment, this study found substantial variability in the radar echo development both in clouds observed during the same day, and across other days. The maximum reflectivity attained by the clouds appeared to be largely a function of their depth. The radar echo evolution could be represented fairly well by the microphysical parcel model initialized with the observed giant aerosol in some cases but not others. The importance of the giant aerosol to precipitation formation in the small trade wind cumuli appears to be minor: the early radar echoes appear to be more consistent with the development of precipitation by collision and coalescence among droplets formed on the more numerous and smaller cloud condensation nuclei, although the number of giant aerosol appears to have some effect on the actual radar reflectivity values.