united states doppler radar extended forecast

In recent years, added improvements in short-range forecasting and nowcasting have also resulted from the development of integrated observing systems that blend data from weather radar and other instruments to produce a more complete picture of atmospheric conditions. Such advances have been enabled through a combination of progressive improvements in radar hardware, signal processing, automated weather-based algorithms, and displays.

Radar measurements have also been key to many remarkable advances in our understanding of the atmosphere and to better weather prediction over a variety of temporal and spatial scales. They are also used regularly for recreational planning and other weather-impacted activities. Today, weather radars improve aviation safety and increase the operational efficiency of the entire air transport industry, and they contribute to agriculture alerts and flood warnings through monitoring of rainfall intensity. Weather radar also monitors larger weather systems such as hurricanes that often include similar phenomena but can extend over very large areas. Of particular importance has been its ability to detect and warn of hazards associated with severe local storms that include hail, tornadoes, high winds, and intense precipitation. In the past half century, weather radar has advanced greatly and has played increasingly important roles that span a wide spectrum of meteorological and climatological applications. Principles of radar have led to the development of other similar technologies such as sonar, sodar and lidar (laser radar) that permit detection of phenomena and targets in the oceans and in the optically clear air. Radars today are used to detect and track aircraft, spacecraft, and ships at sea as well as insects and birds in the atmosphere measure the speed of automobiles map the surface of the earth from space and measure properties of the atmosphere and oceans. (El Niño has the opposite effect in the Pacific, reducing the amount of wind shear.)Īt the same time, this year’s heightened sea surface temperatures pose a number of threats, including the ability to supercharge storms.Role of Radar in the Weather and Climate Observing and Predicting System Hurricanes need a calm environment to form, and the instability caused by increased wind shear makes those conditions less likely. In the Atlantic, El Niño increases the amount of wind shear, or the change in wind speed and direction from the ocean or land surface into the atmosphere. The intermittent climate phenomenon can have wide-ranging effects on weather around the world, and it typically impedes the formation of Atlantic hurricanes. This year features an El Niño pattern, which arrived in June. ( A record 30 named storms formed in 2020.) There were 14 named storms last year, after two extremely busy Atlantic hurricane seasons in which forecasters ran out of names and had to resort to backup lists.

10, NOAA officials revised their estimate upward, to 14 to 21 storms. In late May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that there would be 12 to 17 named storms this year, a “near-normal” amount. Lee is the 12th named storm to form in the Atlantic in 2023.

Lee was a post-tropical cyclone in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with sustained wind speeds of 45 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory.

United states doppler radar extended forecast