A Supplemental Radar Network for Southern Louisiana: Filling The Gaps and Providing Critical Data to Broadcast Professionals During a NEXRAD Relocation

The combination of the NEXRAD and TDWR networks across the United States provide crucial weather radar surveillance, especially across the hurricane and severe weather prone state of Louisiana. However, the recent relocation of the NEXRAD installation in Slidell to Hammond, LA, left broadcasters in Baton Rouge without adequate low level coverage of the atmosphere. This lack of data could have resulted in a myriad of issues including undetected tornadoes, unwarned wind events, or inaccurate precipitation estimates. Fortunately, the weather team at WAFB-TV were able to leverage the three Climavision supplemental radars that provided gap-filling coverage for the temporarily missing NEXRAD, resulting in improved low-level coverage, especially for locations distant from the remaining NEXRAD and TDWR radar locations in the area.

A comparative showcase of supplemental radar data from WAFB-TV cross platform coverage during the NEXRAD relocation will be presented demonstrating the value of low-level surveillance. Study results of the anticipated doubling of radar detected tornados and improvements to quantitative precipitation estimates due to the deployment of the nationwide high-resolution radar network will also be reviewed.

Climavision anticipates highlighting insights from the experienced WAFB-TV weather team on how they leveraged their radar resources on-air, online and on social media to overcome coverage challenges to deliver reliable weather information to their audience.