Ellington

Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric sciences, has dedicated the past 20 years of his life to filling a hole in the National Weather Service’s (NWS) network of radars to help people anticipate natural disasters. It was the research and advocating done by he and his colleagues that is responsible for a new Doppler radar to be installed on the west coast of Washington.

Mass described the new radar as similar to the one that provided observations that may have saved thousands during last month’s tornado outbreak in the southeastern United States. Its planned location is on Langley Hill along the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula. It will begin making observations this coming September and will provide the Northwest with a view of the coast and incoming storms, something that the other two radars in the area could not.

“We will have for the first time a true coastal radar,” Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the NWS Ted Buehner said. “Radars that were established in the late ’80s and early ’90s for the western U.S. were primarily targeted for the populated areas. A true coastal radar is going to provide much better information on incoming storms as they approach the coast and move on shore.”

Mass began advocating for a coastal radar when the first network of radars was established in the late 1980s. He said it was a large storm that hit southwest Washington in December 2007 that caught the attention of others. The storm, which had winds of more than 100 mph, caused extensive flooding and damage in Chehalis, Wash.

“The people on the coast felt they didn’t have the kind of guidance they would have liked to have had,” Mass said. “The weather service didn’t know how much rain was falling in the mountains, and this radar probably could have told them. They could have seen in real time what was happening, and they could have given people some warning.”

After that storm in 2007, Sen. Maria Cantwell authorized a study of the holes in the state’s Doppler radar network.

Mass wants the new radar to provide similar warning as that which was provided to the southeastern United States when a mass of tornadoes struck the area.

“The southeast of the United States — they have beautiful radar coverage,” Mass said. “There was extraordinarily good forecast and warnings [for] most people, because of the radars there; they knew these big storms were coming in. That’s an example of how valuable these radars are.”

Mass said the difference between these radars and the satellite images the Northwest currently uses for forecasting is extreme.

“If you have a sickness, you can go to the doctor, and they can look at you from the outside,” Mass said. “Maybe they can diagnose what’s going on, but to really know what’s going on, you have to see what’s going on inside. The radar is like the CT scan. The satellite sees more from the outside; the radar slices right through and sees the internal structure system.”

Scientists in the UW atmospheric sciences department were actively involved in determining the location of the new radar.

“We just worked on our own to try to come up with some locations we thought were reasonable,” UW research scientist Socorro Medina said. “The national weather service took our opinion into consideration on deciding where to place the radar.”

Mass said the radar, which was previously used by the U.S. Air Force, will cost about $5 million to install. The original plan was to install a new radar priced at $8 million; however, NWS decided this was not necessary.

“Sen. Maria Cantwell was able to get $2 million dollars from Obama’s stimulus package to start the work on the radar,” Mass said. “That was the key; that was what really broke through. Then in 2009, she got the rest of the money [from the 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act].”

The radar is being upgraded in order to provide the best possible observations.

“It’s been retrofitted and has a lot of new parts in it,” Buehner said. “It’ll have a new tower, a new dome, and the construction process is currently underway.”

Reach reporter Jillian Stampher at news@dailyuw.com.