Weather radar

File:Hurricane Rita Lake Charles radar.gif

Weather radar of Hurricane Rita

A weather radar is a type of radar used to show where precipitation is. Weather radar data can be analyzed to tell the movement of precipitation, what type it is (rain, snow, hail, etc.), and forecast its future.

Modern weather radars are mostly Doppler radars, which can find the direction and speed of rain drops and the intensity of the precipitation. Both types of information can be used to find the structure of storms and tell if they signify any severe weather (tornadoes, flash floods, etc.).

Weather Radar Media

• NSSL Doppler with rainshaft - NOAA.jpg

  Weather radar in Norman, Oklahoma with rainshaft

• Darwin Ap WF3 Radar.jpg

  Darwin Airport weather radar (WF44 Radar). The radar is due for an upgrade in 2008 as part of the Bureau of Meteorology's Radar Network and Doppler Services Upgrade Project (RNDSUP)

• OUPRIME1.png

  University of Oklahoma OU-PRIME C-band, polarimetric, weather radar during construction

• Typhoon Cobra, 18 December 1944 east of Luzon.jpg

  Typhoon Cobra as seen on a ship's radar screen in December 1944.

• 1965May06 1919.jpg

  1960s radar technology detected tornado-producing supercells over the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area.

• 

  NEXRAD in South Dakota with a supercell in the background.

• Radar-beam.svg

  A radar beam spreads out as it moves away from the radar station, covering an increasingly large volume.

• Radar-hauteur-en.svg

  The radar beam path with height

• Radar coverage from ground level.png

  Scanned volume by using multiple elevation angles

• NWS precip scale.gif

  NWS color scale of reflectivities.

Other websites

• Radar tutorial
• Weather Underground
• Canadian weather radar FAQ Archived 2006-07-13 at the Wayback Machine