The behavior of short-term convective activity over the Bay of Bengal during the 1988 and 1999 monsoon seasons is examined using 3-hourly satellite infrared data. A distinct spatial grouping of convective systems by size is found. At the east side of the Bay where most of the rainfall over water occurs, the convective systems are relatively small and short-lived. At the northwest side of the Bay near most of the land-based rainfall, convective activity is organized into much larger and longer-lived systems. The diurnal cycle of all the systems over the Bay, regardless of size, shows a 6 am local time maximum in very cold cloud tops (infrared brightness temperature < 210 K), with genesis occurring between 9 pm-3 am (9 pm for the longer-lived larger systems). The cloud systems dissipate after sunrise, with the larger systems lasting until the afternoon. The land-water interface is important for the convection genesis and thereby affects the spatial distribution of convective activity, with early nighttime convection occurring near land and later convection occurring further out over the Bay. The strength of the diurnal cycle varies greatly with location, with the northwest side of the Bay experiencing both the highest amount of very cold cloudiness and the strongest diurnal cycle. Over the east side of the Bay, the diurnal cycle is typical of that documented for other concave coastline areas. Off-shore nocturnal convection propagates away from land, grows during the night, and dissipates rapidly after noon. JASMINE Star 2 experienced arguably the most intense convection at that location in the two years examined, but both the convective diurnal cycle and propagation direction are consistent with climatology. An interesting aspect of the convective lifecycle is that systems often have a southerly component to their motion, with the most common propagation direction over the entire Bay being to the southwest. This can occur even when the larger synoptic-scale movement is towards the northwest (such as is typical at the northern end of the Bay).