The National Weather Radar Testbed (NWRT) continued its role as a research tool in Norman, Oklahoma. Developed as a result of a partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Severe Storms Laboratory, the United States Navy's Office of Naval Research, Lockheed Martin Corporation, the University of Oklahoma's Electrical and Computing Engineering Department and School of Meteorology, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, the Tri-Agencies' (Department of Commerce, Defense and Transportation) Radar Operations Center, the Federal Aviation Administration's Technical Center and Basic Commerce and Industries, Inc, the NWRT provides the first phased array radar available on a full-time basis to the meteorological research community and for testing of the concept of a multifunction phased array radar system.

The 2008 storm season provided additional data on various severe weather events. In addition, the NWRT continued work on various upgrades to support new research topics. The planning continued for implementing a dual-polarized sub-array for testing the characteristics of a phased array dual polarized weather radar. In this paper, we will describe the present status, future upgrades and research progress including results of additional high temporal volumetric scans of severe storms.