Lincoln Doppler Radar Offline Through November 3rd

Service Life Extension Project information The Doppler radar at the National Weather Service office in Lincoln will be offline through November 3rd.

The WSR-88D radar was originally designed for a 20 year service life. With the network well past that point in its lifetime (our radar was installed in 1995), equipment upgrades are being done in order to keep the radars online into the 2030s. This refurbishment, called the "Service Life Extension Program", consists of four parts:

Signal Processor (completed in 2017): This part of the radar processes the returned energy to determine the location of targets (precipitation, etc.). It also filters out ground clutter from trees, buildings, etc. It was replaced with new, state of the art digital equipment.
Transmitter (completed in 2019): This is the part of the radar that sends out the energy signal that reflects back to the radar upon reaching a target.
Equipment Shelter (completed in 2021): This contains the radar equipment that is located at the base of the radar tower, as well as backup generators.
Pedestal (this upgrade): This is the part of the radar that controls the antenna itself. The pedestal will be replaced with a factory refurbishment, which includes replacement of gears, motors, and position sensors. This is the most visible upgrade, which will involve removing the radar dome and taking the transmitter/receiver dish apart.

During the outage, radar data will remain available from our neighboring radar sites (Chicago, Davenport, St. Louis, Evansville, and Indianapolis). We will be able to utilize the neighboring radar data when issuing forecasts and warnings for our service area.

To learn more about the refurbishment, check out this short video from our Radar Operations Center.