New Plymouth weather radar

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NZ Thunderstorm Soc
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Joined: Wed 12/03/2003 22:08
Location: Raukapuka Geraldine

Re: New Plymouth weather radar

Unread post by NZ Thunderstorm Soc »

There's something in this morning's PRESS about a radar being installed near Hokitika. HORRAY \:D/


I'll see if I can dig it out.

JohnGaul
NZTS


PS> Here it is, thanks Paul Gorman
http://www.stuff.co.nz/thepress/4582202a6047.html
JohnGaul
NZThS
NZ Thunderstorm Soc
Posts: 18896
Joined: Wed 12/03/2003 22:08
Location: Raukapuka Geraldine

Re: New Plymouth weather radar

Unread post by NZ Thunderstorm Soc »

There was something in the PRESS, this morning, that Paul Gorman wrote, about a rain radar being installed in the Otago area, as well.
Now that would be nice :smile:
Can't wait until the Hokitika one is up and running \:D/

JohnGaul
NZTS


NEW WEATHER RADAR PLANNED FOR OTAGO
Paul Gorman Science reporter - The Press | Monday, 24 November 2008

A new $3 million weather radar is planned for Otago after units were installed in the North Island and the West Coast.


MetService project director Tony Quayle said the Otago-Southland radar based at Invercargill Airport required upgrading, but that would not happen until 2013 or later.

A site near Hokitika has been identified this month as the best location for a radar on the West Coast.

MetService is not revealing the precise location because it does not want to jeopardise talks with the landowner, which are at an early stage.

Quayle said the Coast radar was part of a national network upgrade and would not be operating until 2011. A radar at Mahia, in Hawkes Bay, would be commissioned next year, with another in the Bay of Plenty in 2010 and then a Northland unit in 2012.

Otago would probably follow that.

The radar works by sending out pulses of microwaves and plotting echoes that bounce back from areas of rain, hail and snow. It can determine how heavy the precipitation is from the strength of the echo and the time it takes to return.

Quayle said the site near Hokitika appeared to provide the best overall coverage of rain and storms across or approaching the Coast.

"Hokitika is quite neat in that you can see right up the Grey Valley into the Reefton-Inangahua area and you can also see up the seaward side of the Paparoas and way down into South Westland following the line of the mountains."

Weather radars near Wellington and Christchurch cannot see over the Southern Alps to find bad weather on the Coast.
JohnGaul
NZThS
OzMike
Posts: 25
Joined: Sat 30/08/2008 14:05
Location: Exmouth/Learmonth Western Australia

Re: New Plymouth weather radar

Unread post by OzMike »

[It’s worth noting here that until very recently the Australian radar network was almost entirely based on dual purpose balloon tracking/RAPIC"

Actually this isn't quite true. The introduction of GPS sondes and the Vaisala autosonde from 1997 meant that weatherwatch radars could be moved to locations more amenable to that purpose (a dual use radar is usually located at airports, which are usually on low, flat land, typified by Norfolk island which has two low mountains close to the north which block the WW signal). The dual purpose WF4 radar at RAAF Williamtown was recently decommissioned, now with an autosonde and the WW radar higher up (Williamtown is on filled in swamp behind coastal sand dunes).

Also many Australian WW radars aren't associated with Bureau stations, such as Dampier, Bowen, Wyndham and Grafton etc. The locations are picked according to spacing along the coastline and availability of high land. There is now a program to put new radars into the interior to cover valuable agricultural areas such as Tamworth and western NSW.