NWS Doppler Radar SRM 4-Panel March 2, 2012

Heavy Rain in the Mid-Atlantic; Severe Thunderstorms in the Northern Plains; Critical Fire in the West

Locally heavy rain and flash flooding will be possible today into tonight near the Mid-Atlantic/Carolina coast. Storms with large hail and severe wind gusts are expected across parts of the central and northern Plains into the upper Mississippi Valley. Dry thunderstorms, and warm, dry, and windy conditions will produce fire weather conditions in parts of the Great Basin and northern Rockies. Read More >

NWS Doppler Radar (WSR-88D) Example Products

A 4-panel of storm-relative motion (SRM) velocity data at 4 different elevation angles from the KLVX WSR-88D Doppler Radar. SRM data depicts estimated velocity values relative to entities moving through their environment (e.g., the wind a thunderstorm "feels" as it moves). Green (red) colors depict winds moving toward (away from) the radar location (at Ft. Knox for KLVX radar).

At left is a 4-panel SRM display that matches the 4-panel reflectivity display on the sample Doppler radar data page from the tornadic supercell thunderstorm over south-central Indiana on March 2, 2012. In the top left panel, a tight, strong, cyclonic (counterclockwise) rotational couplet (low-level mesocyclone) is evident in northwest Clark County where an EF3-EF4 tornado occurred. Higher up in the storm, SRM showed a deep-layered mesocyclone (top right, bottom right), with storm-top divergence at lower left.