Weather radar

155 National Weather Service radars across the country provide fairly good coverage for detecting precipitation, however, there are some notable gaps, ...

Additionally, the Atmospheric Resource Board within North Dakota Department of Water Resources operates two doppler radars in western North Dakota (one in Stanley and one in Bowman) to help provide additional information about precipitation in this part of the state. “I think it is unique and I’ve had some conversations with some colleagues of mine in some of the other western states. It might not seem like that much of a difference, but it is when you start talking about elevation angles farther and farther from the radar as the earth curves.” There are 45 terminal doppler weather radars (TDWR) located at some of the major airports across the country and operated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as a way for air traffic controllers to better monitor precipitation close to airports for takeoff and landing conditions. They can sometimes be helpful for meteorologists to provide additional data that the National Weather Service network of radars might miss, or help provide information about precipitation or rotation closer to the ground than the NWS radars are able to do. Additionally, satellite data can step in to help fill in weather radar gaps. Meteorologists can work around this issue by switching to the data from other nearby radars in order to help fill in the missing data within the “cone of silence.” And sometimes it’s not the far distance between radar sites that results in poor radar coverage in a certain area. When you factor in the curvature of the Earth, the radar beam is actually sampling the atmosphere higher and higher the farther away you go from the radar site. Therefore, we’re left with a gap in the coverage with a sizeable area in parts of western North Dakota and eastern Montana where the radar cannot see precipitation below 6,000 feet. And Watford City isn’t alone when it comes to locations that can experience tornadoes and are in similar radar coverage gaps. As mentioned earlier in our radar series, the radar beam increases in altitude, or height, as it travels farther away from the radar site.