Pleasure reading

Some people enjoy Harry Potter, some enjoy romance novels...but for us weather geeks, we enjoy reading the advancements in radar technology. The big change coming to a radar near you is called dual-pole. When radio frequencies were sent out in the past it was only sent out a horizontal radio wave and measure bounce-back radio waves in a horizontal plane. Dual-polarization will now send out the original horizontal radio wave AND a vertical radio wave. This will now be able to determine if we are seeing hail within storms and also pick out errors and get less "ground clutter." We can also start picking up bugs on the radar and other objects like birds, buildings, etc. The good news is that with this new advancement you can now remove data that is incorrect and clean up the radar to only show precipitation. The National Weather Service radar in Wilmington is scheduled to get the upgrade in the fall of 2012. It takes about a week for the upgrade and as a weather geek I am excited for the technology and excited to learn even more about it in my new book, Radar For Meteorologists by Rinehart.Today is still on tap for the warmest day of the month and year. We should get into the upper 50's with rain returning tonight. It should arrive just before midnight and the light rain showers will move out of here pretty quickly. By mid-morning tomorrow most of the rain will be out of here. Temps will top out in the mid 50's tomorrow and then upper 40's for the rest of the week and weekend. With temps in the upper 40's for the weekend it looks like our chance for snow is melting away. The track of the system still is on the move but the last day's worth of models do not show us getting any of the snow, based on its track. We may see a few light rain showers over the weekend, but hey...with temps in the 50's and upper 40's...bring on the light rain showers. I will monitor the system in the coming days because nothing is set in stone yet. Enjoy the warmth and have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael