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Heavy Rainfall to Bring Flooding Threat to California; Heavy Snow in the Sierra

A strong atmospheric river will bring heavy rainfall to California through the holiday week. The heaviest rainfall is expected on Wednesday in the Los Angeles Basin. Flash and urban flooding is possible. A prolonged heavy snowfall is expected in the Sierra Nevada from the atmospheric river, raising concerns for major snow‐load impacts. Travel may be difficult to impossible over the passes. Read More >

Regional Radars

 National Nexrad network

 

Fig. 1 depicts our regional NEXRAD radars and their “theoretical” areas of coverage. In reality, our weather radar coverage is about 80-90 percent of this theoretical coverage, due to beam attenuation and extreme height of the beam at longer distances.  Additionally, mountains will block smaller scale areas, such as the Franklin Mountains blocking portions of El Paso and Hudspeth Counties. Larger areas void of data include the area north and west of Silver City and much of southern and eastern Hudspeth County.

 

Fig. 2 shows the NEXRAD radar network of the continental U.S., including NWS and Department of Defense sites.