National Weather Service's radar upgrade aims to make severe weather tracking more reliable
CHANHASSEN, Minn. — After nearly a decade of work, the National Weather Service finally finished upgrading its weather radars.
It's a complex network made up of 159 weather radars scattered from coast-to-coast keeping a close eye on our atmosphere.
"Radar is honestly one of the most valuable tools we have," said Nick Carletta, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Chanhassen. "It's a huge part of what we do. It's a big base that we use for our severe warnings, tornado warnings, severe thunderstorm warnings. It's probably the best tool we have to directly observe what's happening over a wide area."
The original Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) technology was developed back in the 80s. After running nearly 24/7 for decades, a face lift was needed.
Nine years and $150 million later, all radars are now upgraded with new hardware as a part of the Service Life Extension Program.
At the same time, there's been some science and software updates too.
"We have research meteorologists that are giving back to the operation side of meteorology and then we give feedback to the research. It goes back and forth constantly. In that process, the research is with new radar techniques and we implement that in new software that comes out to us," Carletta said.
The work was completed in Chanhassen back in 2020. Carletta says it's already making a difference.
"Because the parts are new and updated and only have a couple years on them, we can have confidence that during the most critical severe weather that it will keep spinning and we'll be able to keep using it as the critical tool that it is," Carletta said.
The National Weather Service says you won't see anything different at home, but the radars will be more reliable and will scan the skies for at least another decade.