Dual-polarization RADAR: An upgrade that can help save lives

This year, before the tornado outbreak of March 2, we installed a brand new, state-of-the-art processor. It’s the most powerful in the Tri-State and delivers information faster than anyone else, allowing us to warn you sooner.

Our goal is to warn you FIRST when severe weather is moving through in order to keep you and your family safe.

On the night of March 2, Chief Meteorologist Steve Raleigh was able to show how severe the storms were, and where they were heading using Ultimate Doppler 9.

Even with the precision and accuracy of Ultimate Doppler 9, our radar network is about to become even more powerful!

Come this fall, Dual-polarization RADAR, or Dual-pol RADAR, comes to the Tri-State.

This amazing technology will be able to give us a more precise look at storms by not only scanning the storm horizontally, but also vertically, which will tell us so much more!

Bob Baron, the Founder, President, and CEO of Baron Services, who created Ultimate Doppler 9, says that Dual-pol RADAR will improve detection in a severe weather event, in that it can tell the difference between a funnel in the air, and a tornado on the ground. 

Dual-pol RADAR will be able to show a specific debris signature that is ONLY detected when a tornado is on the ground.

In the outbreak of March 2, we were flooded with reports of debris, at the same time that Ultimate Doppler 9 was showing a tornadic signature on RADAR.

With Dual-pol RADAR, we would actually be able to see that debris, acting like a “virtual” spotter, confirming that a tornado was in fact, on the ground.

“I believe that the additional data that we’re getting, and it’s a huge, intense amount of data coming from the RADAR in both the horizontal and vertical, is going to lead us to much better understanding of tornadoes,” Baron said.