Election Day Weather Extremes

Fire Weather Concerns for a Large Part of the Central U.S.; Severe Weather in the Central Plains

Dry and windy conditions will bring widespread fire weather concerns to the northern/central Plains and portions of the Southwest into the southern Plains. Severe thunderstorms with large hail and damaging wind gusts are possible over the central Plains today into this weekend. Rain and high elevation snow is expected over parts of the Cascades and Northern Intermountain Region through Saturday. Read More >

Grand Rapids Radar Down For System Upgrade

Radar data from NWS Grand Rapids will be unavailable until Thursday, November 10, due to a scheduled upgrade necessary to extend the life of the radar into the next decade and beyond. Overlapping radar data will be available from surrounding sites, and no severe weather is expected during the outage. The first of four projects in the Service Life Extension Program, this step replaces obsolete signal processor technology with new digital equipment. The signal processor is the like the brains of the radar, and the upgrade will result in faster and more precise data processing, paving the way for new radar technologies and algorithms in the future. In the next several years, refurbishment will also be done to the transmitter, equipment shelter, and pedestal.