Our current radar coverage is sparse, but it's for a good reason

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - The radar you normally rely on will look a little different for a while. That’s because the National Weather Service is moving a main radar in Slidell to Hammond over the next few months. This move will provide better radar coverage in areas that have historically not had adequate coverage.

The radar being moved, known as KLIX WSR-88D, is used in weather apps and by the entire weather community. It is a part of the NEXRAD (Next Generation Weather Radar) network installed by the United States in the mid 90s. It’s a part of a web of radars used to cover the nation and its territories. They’ve all been going through upgrades over the last several years to improve performance and extend their lifespan but occasionally a few will be moved to improve coverage.

The decision to relocate the KLIX radar from Slidell to Hammond will better service the city of Baton Rouge and surrounding areas. The farther the radar is from a location, the higher the radar beam reaches in the atmosphere. By moving the radar to Hammond, it’s closer to Baton Rouge which will allow readings at lower altitudes which can provide better storm coverage. Lower-level rotation can be read which will provide better tornado detection. The radar beam will also be tilted to a lower level which will further aid in lower-level readings. Currently, the lowest elevation angle the radar uses is 0.5 degrees, but after the move, the lowest elevation angle will drop to 0.3 degrees.

The Slidell radar is moving. This will give the same radar coverage to the North Shore and the New Orleans metro. Image courtesy of the National Weather Service.(WVUE Fox 8)

The move will take approximately three months. Other radars in the same network will be used in place of the KLIX radar until it is back up and running. Those would be Mobile, Jackson, Fort Polk, and Lake Charles. These radars are stitched together already on your weather app. But since the radar beams are farther than the KLIX radar’s old location, the radar beams are reading higher in the clouds which means sometimes heavier rain is seen as light to moderate rain.

Luckily, forecasters have ways of being able to see inside of the storms without radar. While there are still limitations, using ground observations as well as satellite data can help track storms that move through our area until we have full radar coverage back.

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