Enjoy this page? Unidata made it possible!

The imagery on this page is generated with Unidata's McIDAS-X software package. It is because of these tools and resources that we are able to bring this data to you. Unidata empowers educational institutions like ours by providing software, support and grants to further education and research of our planet and atmosphere. To learn more about Unidata, visit them here.

DISCLAIMER:

This page, its features and contents are largely in a completed state. However, active development is still on going. If you are curious about feature development and want to float an idea past our development staff, we are certainly open to suggestions from our users. The overwhelming majority of the imagery on this page is rendered at a resolution of 900x900 pixels. Because of this we recommend viewing this page at a 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio at a resolution of 1920x1080 or greater. A mobile version of this page is still in development.

Product Description

Base velocity is derived by evaluating the 'doppler shift' of the returned signal. If the target object is moving, the component of that target's velocity that is parallel to the radar beam will result in a phase shift of the return. That is to say that the radar is only capable of determining the velocity of an object in one dimension; either toward or away from the radar. A shift to higher frequencies indicates a component of the targets velocity is moving toward the radar and are often displayed in varying shades of green. A shift to lower frequencies indicates a component of the targets velocity is moving away from the radar and are displayed in varying shades of red. Motionless objects or objects moving exactly perpendicular to the radar beam will not result in any detectable doppler shift and will be evaluated as having a velocity of 'zero'. Velocities at or near zero often are displayed in shades of grey and white. Because the radar scans radially in all directions there is no wind flow pattern that will not result in some (nearly) continuous strip of zero or near zero velocities. This phenomenon results in a feature referred to as the zero-isodop (isodop referring to a line of constant doppler shift). The shape of the zero-isodop and the fact that the radar beam increases in altitude above the ground further from the radar can be used to infer characteristics about the vertical wind profile through a slice of the lower atmosphere. For further information, explore the following Meted module from UCAR and advancing to the 'Doppler Velocity Measurements' section: Go here

Website Alert Message



Radar Status Message

546 NOUS62 KRAH 291550 FTMRAX Message Date: Oct 29 2024 15:50:43 10/29/24 1549Z KRAX HAS RETURNED TO SERVICE.

For further information, check the following twitter accounts for periodic updates on product generation status and website improvements; @CoDWXData and @CODMeteorology. Your feedback is always appreciated, so feel free to respond to tweets or send us an email using our Feedback page.

Dual-Pol Radar Site Selection

Change Map Region: CONUS ALASKA HAWAII Addtional Sites: Guam Puerto Rico
Change Map Type: Radar Radar + Warnings

Active Severe Weather Warnings

Click warning for Full Text - Choose from Available Radars to switch site

Type Counties Affected Tornado Status Hail Size Wind Speed Available Radar(s) Issued by Issuance Time Expire Time

Share this page

Copy URL to Clipboard



Share Directly to Social Media platforms

Save Data

Select # of frames to save then choose file type

Product Description
Website Alert & Radar Status Message
Radar Selection
Active Warnings
Share Page
Save Data

Missing Data

We were unable to generate this product. This can happen for a number of different reasons. Be sure to check the status of RAX here and/or here. If the site status is normal and this site or product suffers a continuous outage, keep us aware of it by using our Feedback Page.