gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
The Schuler weather radar station has been out of action for some time but Environment Canada says that is about to change.
The Schuler radar had to be upgraded this summer to increase the doppler range, said Blaine Lowry, meteorologist with Environment Canada. Nothing had gone wrong with the equipment it was simply a scheduled upgrading of the radar.
“They essentially built an entirely new radar,” said Lowry.
It is larger and has technology that scans in three dimensions and doubles the doppler range, he explained.
If you use Environment Canada’s website and look at the radar when severe weather is in the forecast, you are not likely to see a huge difference but it will mean improved data being available for meteorologists, said Lowry.
“There’s more tools and more information at our disposal,” said Lowry.
Radar is an acronym from the words radio detection and ranging and has been in use since the 1940s.
Environment Canada has a network of 31 sites providing radar coverage to more than 95 per cent of Canadians. The main purpose is early detection of developing weather and tracking of precipitation.
Environment Canada’s weather radars have a detection range of 250 km around each site and a doppler range of 120 km, which is used to detect severe weather such as tornadoes.
Lowry says that last week in Schuler there was testing on site of the new radar equipment. The website has also been adapted to display the new weather radar.
The new imagery should be online later this week.
“Barring any more hiccups with testing at the site, we should be getting imagery from that radar on this page by the end of the week,” said Lowry.
