For the past few weeks, the Storm Team has been running with our new weather equipment. Let me tell you, we could not be happier, or more excited. You should be too.
With this new equipment, we are hooked into the most up-to-date, live information. That means as weather is happening, the information is coming into our system. We can access all of this information while we are on the air too, which means there is no lag when it comes to passing along important, life saving information.
We are the only station with four LIVE doppler radars. You can always tell if a radar is live by looking for the sweep (the white lines).
The most exciting piece of equipment in our system is Storm Track 4D Live Doppler Radar (4D means 4 LIVE Doppler Radars). This is the most advanced radar program on the market. With this we are getting LIVE radar information from Erie, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh. Another station in town has to wait several minutes for this same information to come to them. One way to tell if a radar is live, look for the "sweep", or update line. If you don't see one, that information is old. We have FOUR (yes we are bragging), the most in town.
This image of "Storm Cutter" shows a hail core aloft in this storm. It is the purple area towards the top of the storm. Looking at the storm in 3D is the only way to only way to tell if the hail is staying up in the atmosphere, or if it is starting to drop.
Also with Storm Track 4D Live Doppler Radar, we have "Storm Cutter" where we are able to actually slice into a storm and see what is happening inside. Sometimes you have to look inside a storm to see how it is transforming, and to see if it may become damaging or severe. With some programs, like another station in town, you can see around the storm, but looking inside is the best way to grasp what is happening.
Storm Track 4D Live Doppler Radar also comes with a program called "Storm Path". This is a constantly updating severe weather model that shows the future movement of storms. This is another very important severe weather tool.
Anyhow, we are very excited in the Storm Team Center, and we look forward to being your Severe Weather Station!
Comments (2)
Erie weather shows should learn the usage of AVERAGE and NORMAL.
Posted by Tom Tee | September 15, 2007 3:27 PM
Posted on September 15, 2007 15:27
I am not sure why your comment ended up here and not in the "summer slipping away" post, anyhow, lets talk about my line of thinking by using the term "average" rather than normal.
I am a personal believer that there is no such thing as a "normal" high or low temperature, only an "average" high or low. When it is well above or well below average, you can call that weather "not normal", or "abnormal". Yet, those very warm and very low temperatures for a date have an effect on the the average. Either warming it up a bit or cooling it down. That is why I personally chose to use the word "average" rather than normal. The word "normal" is still widely used in the meteorological community.
--Ray Petelin,
WSEE Storm Team Meteorologist
Posted by Ray Petelin | September 15, 2007 6:20 PM
Posted on September 15, 2007 18:20