NWS Louisville Doppler Radar - Dual Pol Data

Heat Continues for the East and South-Central U.S.; Strong to Severe Storms Across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast

The extremely dangerous heat wave continues across the East Coast and much of the South-Central U.S. today. Record high temperatures are expected for some areas especially across the Mid-Atlantic where extreme heat risk conditions reside. There is a Slight Risk (level 2 of 5) of severe thunderstorms today for the northern Mid-Atlantic into portions of southern New England. Read More >

NWS Doppler Radar (WSR-88D) Example Products

Conventional Doppler radar sends out a horizontal energy pulse providing a oneâï¿½ï¿½dimensional view of precipitation. Dual pol radar sends both horizontal and vertical pulses, providing a twoâï¿½ï¿½dimensional view. Thus, it provides much better information about the size, shape, and estimated amount of precipitation, distinguishing between rain, snow, and hail. Basic dual pol products include correlation coefficient (CC), differential reflectivity (ZDR), and specific differential phase (KDP). More information is available on our Dual Pol webpage.

High reflectivity was present in a supercell on March 2, 2012 over central Kentucky (upper left; white arrow). Here, ZDR (upper right) showed low values (white color) indicating spherical shapes suggestive of large hailstones. CC (lower right) showed values of 0.8-0.95 (yellow/green) indicative of a combination of large hail and wet hail/rain. KDP (lower left), which helps assess rain drop size/density, showed a small black area (data dropout), surrounded by values of 1-3 (blue-green). This also denoted large hail, surrounded by small hail and large drops. Thus, dual pol clearly identified large hail in the storm, which produced at least golf ball size. Reflectivity alone (upper left) suggested large hail, but could not confirm it as high values can also mean a lot of small hail and/or a hail/very heavy rain mix.

Heat Continues for the East and South-Central U.S.; Strong to Severe Storms Across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast

NWS Louisville Doppler Radar - Dual Pol Data - 2 March 2012

NWS Doppler Radar (WSR-88D) Example Products