First weather radar installation complete in Lee
On July 31, Lee County Government announced that partner Climavision completed installing its first gap-filling weather radar system in the state, which will supplement weather coverage in between neighboring NEXRAD S-Band radars.
Because of regional topography and the nature of weather radar technology, gaps can exist between systems as the radar beam moves higher in the atmosphere the further it gets from the radar location. This leaves some areas, such as Lee County and surrounding areas, vulnerable to weather phenomena that often happen in the lower atmosphere such as flash flooding, high winds and tornadoes.
In September, the Lee County Commission approved a license agreement to create the partnership and fill those gaps. The equipment is installed on the roof of the Lee County Public Safety Center, at 2675 Ortiz Ave., Fort Myers.
The dual-polarization, X-Band weather radar is designed specifically to fill the small gaps to provide the highest resolution view of what is happening nearest to the ground. While all warnings and notices will continue to come through official National Weather Service (NWS) channels, the system will provide critical visibility enabling forecasters and emergency officials to better plan, prepare and respond to volatile weather conditions.
“This region has been challenged with some gaps in weather radar coverage for years,” Lee County Public Safety Director Benjamin Abes said. “We are excited and proud to enable this installation so critical data can be used to keep our residents and visitors safe during severe weather.”
The system covers a 60-mile range and produces a variety of weather variables, such as hyper-accurate rainfall measurements, reflectivity and velocity data, which is especially useful for tracking tornadic activity and wind gusts, hail, wildfire smoke and more.
The data is fully integrated into existing NWS warnings systems and alerts and is accessible and used by the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL), NWS, National Hurricane Center (NHC), Storm Prediction Center (SPC), Warning Decision Training Center (WDTC), Radar Operations Center (ROC), every regional NWS headquarters, dozens of weather forecasting offices (WFOs), and more than 600 NWS weather forecasters across the country.
Climavision’s X-Band weather radar is a proprietary dual polarity, high-resolution, solid-state system manufactured in the United States. It is operationally licensed by the FCC. As the first system to go live in Florida, Lee expects the system to be operational within four to six weeks with county Emergency Management officials and federal partners receiving access to real-time data.
Other industry and public sector partners may also gain access to the system at some point. With 30 radars now installed across 15 states, Climavision plans to install nearly 200 supplemental weather radars across the country to comprehensively address low-level weather gaps.