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Extreme Fire Weather Concerns; Severe Thunderstorms from the Plains to Mississippi Valley

Extremely critical fire weather concerns for portions of the southern High Plans as strong wind and very dry conditions could result in rapid spread of any fires. Meanwhile, severe thunderstorms are expected once again across areas of the Central and Southern Plains, then spreading in the Mississippi Valley regions on Monday. Damaging winds, very large hail and strong tornadoes are possible. 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.