A High-Resolution Supplemental Radar Network Deployed in the US and its Implication for Improved Weather Warnings and Communication

The NEXRAD radar network across the United States provides data that plays an important part of severe weather watch and warning processes. However, areas further from radar sites experience data voids, missing critical information about the lower levels of the atmosphere. This lack of data can result in undetected weather events, such as tornadoes, snow squalls, and flooding precipitation, leading to delayed or completely unwarned life-threatening disasters.

This session will focus on cases highlighting accurate low-level information being captured by the new supplemental high-resolution X-band weather radar network being deployed by Climavision throughout the United States. Notable highlights will include tornadic events demonstrating the value of the supplemental network in helping to corroborate the existence of tornadoes that might be too far from the national radar network to accurately confirm the presence of a surface-based funnel cloud. A brief introduction to the radar network and the data being evaluated by select WFOs through the National Mesonet Program (NMP) will also be presented.