Washington's main weather radar is broken and could be out of service for many days

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Maybe they can scavenge parts from some of those unneeded mail sorting machines.

National Weather Service isn't sure how long it will take to fix the main weather radar serving the DC area. Fortunately, there are other radars in the region which provide data:

Link to tweet

NWS Forecast Office Baltimore/Washington

News Headlines
KLWX WSR-88D is out of service until further notice. (UPDATE 1)

Capital Weather Gang

Washington’s main weather radar is broken and could be out of service for many days

A repair team is en route from Oklahoma while forecasters rely on surrounding sites for storm monitoring


The National Weather Service radar in Sterling. (NWS Sterling)

By Matthew Cappucci
September 24, 2020 at 4:35 PM EDT

The National Weather Service’s main radar for the Washington and Baltimore region, housed in Sterling near Dulles International Airport, was knocked out of service on Sunday morning. It now appears that a potentially significant mechanical issue could be to blame, and it’s unclear how long the radar could be inoperable. ... That radar, a WSR-88D model, is the most powerful one tasked with scanning the skies in northern Virginia, central Maryland, the eastern panhandle of West Virginia and the District. It’s part of a network of 159 such Doppler radars maintained by the NWS nationwide. Each radar emits high-frequency pulses of energy, a portion of which bounce off precipitation targets and offer valuable information from inside a storm.

[Meteorologists have warned about North Carolina’s ‘radar gap’ for years. It’s taking a toll on forecasts.]

While the radar is down, forecasters will rely on airport radars and NWS radars at adjacent offices in State College, Pa.; Pittsburgh; Mount Holly, N.J.; Wakefield, Va.; Dover, Del.; Blacksburg, Va.; and Charleston. ... This network of radars can stitch together a reasonable representation of storm surveys.

The region has some of the best radar coverage in the country thanks to four smaller, less-powerful “terminal” radars at the three major airports — Dulles, Reagan National and BWI Marshall — as well as Andrews Air Force Base. Those radars are useful for aircraft in detecting changing winds during takeoff and landing.

{snip}

Aside from a few showers on Friday, significant weather requiring serious radar monitoring is not expected through the weekend. But next week’s weather pattern could see more turbulent storm systems, which could make the absence of the Sterling radar more consequential.

{snip}

Jason Samenow contributed to this report.

Matthew Cappucci
Matthew Cappucci is a meteorologist for Capital Weather Gang. He earned a B.A. in atmospheric sciences from Harvard University in 2019, and has contributed to The Washington Post since he was 18. He is an avid storm chaser and adventurer, and covers all types of weather, climate science, and astronomy. Follow https://twitter.com/MatthewCappucci

There's some sort of radar tower over by the Paul Garber Facility and Suitland Metrorail stop in Hillcrest Heights. That must be for National Airport. I can easily spot that with or without binoculars from Alexandria.

Go to street view. You'll see it.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8421158,-76.9357972,3a,15.2y,346.25h,106.58t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sj0dvnzMVxEhk2kt03kQdzQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dj0dvnzMVxEhk2kt03kQdzQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D320.13898%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

[elleng]

1. WOW!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. I finally took the SKYWARN class on Tuesday night. Like everything else, it was online. NT

[elleng]

3. Nice!

Coverage @ Andrews may get us here in southern MD; watching. Rain forecast to begin later today, and continue thru noon tomorrow. Cloudy now.