During the middle of September 2001, the weather radar at NWS Spokane got a new paint job. The pictures below show the daring feats that the painters undertook in order to complete the job. The actual radar dish is inside this large white ball (known as a radome). The radome is designed to protect the radar from the weather elements. As you can see from the pictures, it looks a bit like a soccer ball. When it was initially assembled back in February 1996, the radome was shipped in the pieces you can see, and then assembled on the ground before a crane lifted it into place. The radome has a hatch door at the very top. This allows the maintainence crews to climb onto the top of the radome, and then hang from support ropes while painting.