What happened to intellicast?
Intellicast Merges with Weather Underground Starting January 17, 2019, we began redirecting traffic from Intellicast.com to wunderground.com. Even though the Intellicast name and website will be going away, the technology and features that you have come to rely on will continue to live on wunderground.com.
What does a Doppler radar do?
By their design, Doppler radar systems can provide information regarding the movement of targets as well as their position. When the WSR-88D transmits pulses of radio waves, the system keeps track of the phase (shape, position, and form) of those pulses.
Why is a Doppler radar useful?
Doppler radar can also measure the changes in radio waves, which indicate wind speed and direction. Not only sound waves show the Doppler Effect; light waves and radio waves do the same. That is why a Doppler Radar system uses this principal to tell weather rain is moving closer to the radar or going farther away.
What natural hazard is detected by Doppler radar?
Tornadoes, however, are trickier to predict since they are much faster-moving events; meteorologists use Doppler radar to measure moving objects such as hail or rain within developing supercell clouds.
How does Doppler radar save?
The Doppler radars now appearing around the United States are expected to save money and lives by providing earlier warnings of severe weather such as flash floods, tornadoes and thunderstorms. Also known as NEXRAD (for next-generation weather radar), the Doppler can detect and track clouds and cloud-free fronts.
How does a Doppler radar detect tornadoes?
Doppler radar can see not only the precipitation in a thunderstorm (through its ability to reflect microwave energy, or reflectivity), but motion of the precipitation along the radar beam. In other words, it can measure how fast rain or hail is moving toward or away from the radar.