NWS Doppler Radar SRM 4-Panel March 2, 2012

Widespread Showers in the Eastern US; Severe Thunderstorms in the Plains; Heatwave in the Desert Southwest

Widespread showers and thunderstorms across much of the central and eastern U.S. will produce areas of excessive rainfall, especially in the southern Mid-Atlantic states. Scattered severe thunderstorms are expected from Montana into portions of the central/southern Plains this weekend. A heatwave will build in the Desert Southwest, in parts of Arizona, southeastern California, and southern Nevada. 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.