NWS Louisville Doppler Radar Enhanced Echo Tops

Tracking Major Hurricane Erin; Hot in the Mid-Mississippi Valley

Major Hurricane Erin is tracking just north of the lower Bahamas today. Dangerous surf and rip current threats increase this week for most of the Atlantic coastline. Erin's outerbands may impact the Outer Banks later this week. Hot to extremely hot temperatures are forecast today and Tuesday from a part of the southern Plains into the central to lower Mississippi River Valley. Read More >

NWS Doppler Radar (WSR-88D) Example Products

A derived product from NWS Doppler radar is Enhanced Echo Tops. The radar estimates echo tops of precipitation-producing systems, including thunderstorms, based on data from various levels. Any color enhancement curve can be placed on the data to highlight various features. Although this product is less critical with respect to severe storm assessment than other radar data, echo tops and their temporal trends can give forecasters a quick look at those storms and locations containing the highest and/or growing tops of storms.

In this image, several supercell thunderstorms were located over central Kentucky on March 2, 2012. The green (orange/yellow) colors represent echo tops ranging from 30,000-40,000 ft (40,000-50,000 ft). Lower echo tops are in blue and purple colors.