A radar pulse hitting higher cloud tops may indicate the presence of more snow, while a pulse hitting the lower levels of the cloud may show us cold raindrops formed from melted snowflakes. The beams traveling out from surrounding radars will hit WNC clouds or thunderstorms at higher altitudes.Ī radar pulse hitting the top of a thunderstorm will not send back the same energy as a radar pulse hitting the low levels of the storm with all the heavy rain or hail. While News 13 has a great NEXRAD network around Western North Carolina, all are located farther away from our area. In some cases, the cloud is outside the range of a particular radar site, and the pulse simply travels above the cloud completely. The farther the radar is from the cloud, the higher up it hits the cloud. Because the Earth curves downward away from the radar site, the pulse of energy will travel higher and higher the farther it travels. NEXRAD radar helps meteorologists determine what type of precipitation is actually falling from a cloud if they can see the lowest levels of the cloud in winter.Īs a radar pulse travels away from the radar, it will not follow the curvature of the Earth. A cloud may be full of snowflakes near the top, but melting may be occurring at lower levels of the cloud. Damaging straight-line winds or tornadoes happen at the lowest levels of the storm. Hail forms in the "belly" - or mid-levels - of a thunderstorm. When it comes to severe weather and cold-weather precipitation types, meteorologists depend on radar beam samples from the lower levels of the cloud. When it does, the energy is scattered and some of it is sent back to the radar - which is how meteorologists can interpret the data sent back to the radar and track rain showers, thunderstorms and winter precipitation. As the energy travels away from the radar, it may hit objects, such as raindrops, hail, snowflakes, mountains, buildings, bats, birds, bugs, etc. How doppler works, and why an outage presents challenge to WNC forecastersĪ single NEXRAD radar sends pulses of energy as it completes a 360-degree rotation. The Radar Operations Center provides lifecycle management and support for all WSR-88Ds. Three federal agencies support these radars: NOAA National Weather Service, the United States Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration.
The NEXRAD network of radars was designed to overlap in coverage, so the weather forecast office in Greer has access to all data available from surrounding radars, including Columbia, South Carolina Atlanta, Georgia Knoxville, Tennessee Raleigh, North Carolina and also the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar in Charlotte, North Carolina.
It's possible it will be up before that date if the work can be completed early." The radar will be down in the meantime, and should be returned to service by February 3 when the SLEP process is complete. The bull ring, which is the part that failed on December 31 (the cause of the current outage), was due to be replaced as part of the SLEP anyway. She confirmed on Friday, January 6, "The SLEP is now scheduled for January 23 - February 3. The National Weather Service said the maintenance project, known as the Service Life Extension Program, was designed to extend the operational life of the NEXRAD until 2040.īecause of that, and this extended outage, National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist Trisha Palmer said, "We're going to try to move the currently scheduled late February SLEP to an earlier date if possible." The 27-year-old bull gear was to be replaced as part of a larger maintenance project scheduled for later this winter. 31, 2022 - and a team from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration determined the bull gear, which is the primary gear responsible for turning the antenna, needs to be repaired. The radar failed on New Year's Eve - Dec.
However, the current data should be accurate.
More checks and calibrations will be needed Friday before it becomes fully operational. Radar data is now flowing once again after pedestal and gear replacement at the end of January. (WLOS) - The National Weather Service WSR-88D Doppler radar (NEXRAD) in Greer, South Carolina, which is operated by the weather forecast office in Greenville-Spartanburg, is back online!