See the difference in the lower map, picking up precip that isn't in the top?
Posted on 03/20/2008 9:41:21 PM PDT by Judith Anne
This is the strangest weather radar map I have ever seen: green circles around St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, Des Moines, and a couple others--clear in the middle, green doughnut of precip all around.
Yes, I am logged in. A moose bit my sister, but it was years ago. My beeber has never been stuned.
These circles are strange. Can someone get a screen capture for the thread, please, as a favor?
I wonder what being an experienced radar map viewer is a sign of <grin>.
It looks like a failure in some computer enhancement program designed to reduce ground clutter in the nationwide composite map. I’m saying this because all the radars with the circular patterns are in the midwest.
That would indicate that some office isn’t paying attention — probably paying attention to the flooding and not the radar.
Okay. Now it’s starting to make sense.
Thanks. To me, this was an anomaly, never seen before. Something strange like that gnaws at me until it’s explained, and I appreciate the information.
Obviously, I don’t have anything better to do...:D
That is weird looking! Maybe they’re making more crop circles....
Regarding post 28: Don’t worry. It is one of those triangular craft we hear about. A HUGH one. But it’s heading to D.C. (They don’t call it flyover country for nothing!).
That makes sense, too.
It just goes to show you, you can learn nearly anything on Free Republic. Better than wiki.
See the difference in the lower map, picking up precip that isn't in the top?
I learn something here every night!
Are the green spots in the lower map precip? I thought they were ground clutter?
“Oh, my adiabat is lapsed and my entropy is high,
I’ve got rigor mortis and I think I’m gonna die;
My paranoid dementia has a differential slope,
And the spots on weather radar make it tough for me to cope.”
Just a little ditty to keep the dogs asleep....
Don't cite me on this, but I think Doppler radars work on reflecting of radar signals based on density of the atmosphere (assumed to be dense due to rain, snow, sleet, etc.).
What does density look like when meteors striking the atmosphere ripple throughout the air?
Of course, I'm not schooled in this and am just supposing...
-PJ
Too late. I’ve been assimilated.
It is a rather odd effect, but I’ve seen them before on local radar images. They are most likely low level temperature inversions. There has been a lot of rain and flooding in this area and this being spring the air temperature is getting warmer while the ground is still relatively much colder.
The reason they look like circles is that as the radar makes its circular sweep, it’s picking up the denser moister air closest to the radar station.
Think about standing in the middle of a meadow with a low hanging ground fog. Now imagine holding a flashlight at a 90 degree angle and turning in a circle. The flashlight beam will reflect the fog at the lower level but the beam will also extend past the fog to where the air is clearer and not bounce back any reflection.
But HAL9000 and endthematrix did a much better job of explaining it.
BTW - I’ve also seen local radar images picking up very large flocks of migratory birds flying close to the radar stations with a similar sort of circular effect. So maybe it’s geese?
Well, whatever the explanation, it’s totally gone this morning.
I’m glad you’ve seen this effect before, it’s the first time I’ve seen anything like it, and it was definitely strange, being all over the entire middle west.
I’m glad to hear that. If you hadn’t replied, I’d be concerned that perhaps I was wrong after all and that you had been beamed aboard one of those ginormous Mother Ships. LOL!
Seriously, I recall a local weatherman explaining some curious looking radar images. On the radar loop from the Maryland Eastern Shore on a very clear spring morning, there were several circular radar blips that would appear and disappear and then appear again.
He explained that the radar was actually picking up large flocks of birds.
We’re going to St. Louis Easter day, if Hwy 44 stays open. At the moment it is, but there are places it may be closed just outside of St. Louis, according to reports,
That’s a relief. If the moose knocks on your door asking for cheese you can honestly tell him you have no cheese in your house.
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