The building holding the back-up generator was put into place this week and work continued on connecting power and utilities.  Below is a nice video showing the construction through the middle of June.  The photo on the right is of the generator building (plus the others than hold the receiver/transmitter).

The radar is located on Langley Hill at an elevation of approximately 250 ft, roughly 3 miles east of the coastal town of Copalis Beach (see maps).

During the early to mid-1990s the National Weather Service (NWS) installed a network of powerful Doppler radars across the United States.  Known as the NEXRAD or WSR-88D radars, they were a huge advance for weather prediction and warning capabilities across the U.S.  Here in the Pacific Northwest, NEXRAD radars were placed on Camano Island, at Scappose near Portland, and on the top of Mt. Ashland near Medford (7500 ft!), as well as close to Spokane and Pendleton.

Although these radars represented a major improvement from the nearly radarless situation before, some major problems became apparent.  A huge issue was the lack of radar coverage over the coastal zone and offshore (see figures below). Furthermore, there was no coverage over the wet, windward sides of most of the regional coastal mountains, hampering prediction of flooding.  And, of course, coastal residents lacked the benefits of being able to use the radar for planning business and recreational activities.

The coastal zone of Washington State is one of the stormiest coastal areas of the nation, often experiencing fierce storms and hurricane-force winds.  Some cyclones approaching the coast are as strong as category 1-3 hurricanes and without coastal and offshore radar coverage we can not determine detailed storm structure as they approach the region.

When major storms approach the southeast or eastern coasts of the U.S., National Weather Service radars can show their detailed structures.  Currently, the lack of coastal radar coverage does not give Northwest forecasters a similar tool.  This will change in September when the Langley Hill radar goes operational.

Beginning in the late 1990s, a group of Northwest meteorologists and interested organizations began an effort for securing a radar for the Washington coast.  The group included University of Washington meteorologists, TV weathercasters from throughout the region, local environmental groups such as Friends of Grays Harbor, local timber companies such as Port Blakely Tree Farms, local fisher and crabber organizations, and many of the local municipalities.  Rarely has such a wide-ranging group of scientists, resource companies, media, environmental groups and governmental representatives come together to advocate a major project.

Compelling evidence for the value of a coastal radar was provided during January and February 2001 when a research radar was placed at Westport, WA during the IMPROVE-2 field experiment (directed towards understanding the nature of precipitation processes influencing our regon). As shown in the figure below, the research radar clearly showed the structure of approaching storms and documented heavy precipitation on the coastal mountains.  NWS forecasters repeatedly noted the substantial value of the coastal radar for local forecasting during that period.


Even with strong community support and a solid scientific case for the radar, there was little movement towards the acquisition of such a unit by the National Weather Service.  However, as described below the situation would change substantially in 2008 due to a major storm and the intervention of U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell.

During December 2-4, 2007 a catastrophic storm struck the western portions of Washington and Oregon. Winds along the coast gusted above 70 mph for nearly 24 hours, causing extensive treefalls, building damage, and power outages. Some gusts reached 125 mph.  At the same time, very heavy precipitation--up to 20 inches in 24 hours--hit the coastal mountains of southwest Washington.  The resulting flooding and slope failures were extraordinary. With no coastal radar viewing the windward (heavy precipitation) side of the terrain and the Camano and Portland radars poorly positioned to get reliable information, the National Weather Service was unable to secure a good idea of how much precipitation was falling in real-time.  The result was inadequate short-term forecasts. The Chehalis River flooded and without sufficient warning, farmers and others were unable to move many animals and assets to dry ground.  Several towns were flooded and Interstate 5 was closed for days.  Damage was in the tens of millions of dollars.


In response to this storm and previous calls for a coastal radar acquistion, Senator Cantwell's staff organized a meeting on March 6, 2008 at Grays Harbor Community College regarding the need for a radar.   A large group attended, including representatives of Congressmen Dicks, Inslee, and Bard, local cities and counties, the private sector, the University of Washingon, local environmental groups, local citizens, and the National Weather Service.  The group overwhelmingly supported a coastal radar acquisition.

A major breakthrough occurred during March 2009, when Senator Cantwell secured a $2 million appropropriation to begin the acquistion of a coastal radar. With that funding, the National Weather Service funded a study on the need for a new radar by some radar experts at the University of Oklahoma and University of Massachusetts.  The final report, released in January 2009, concluded "severe deficiencies exist across the radar gap regions identified in Washington" and that severe storm warning times were "below average."  It stated that additional radar coverage would "improve public safety and reduce the negative economic consequences from hazardous weather."   In short, the report made it clear that a very serious problem of inadequate radar coverage existed and needed to  be corrected as soon as possible.

In late 2009, Senator Cantwell and her allies on the Washington congressional delegation were able to secure full funding for the radar (another 7 million dollars--as we will see not all of this funding will be needed). The new funding allowed the National Weather Service to hire contractors to evaluate several potential sites, with substantial assistance by Dr. Socorro Medina and others at the University of Washington.  In addition, environmental assessments were made of the finalist locations to insure minimal impact to people or wildlife. 

During 2010, the Langley Hill site was determined to be the best by all measures and on March 18th a lease for the land was signed;  days later construction was initiated.   The National Weather Service and its contractors are confident the radar will be fully operational by the end of September 2011, ready for the upcoming storm season.  Keep in mind, 2011-2012 should be a neutral El Nino/La Nina year and such years have brought the most damaging storms on record to our area.

The first question is what will this new radar see?  It is possible to simulate the coverage, including the impact of terrain, and that has been done by a National Weather Service contractor and by UW scientists applying sophisticated radar beam simulation software.  First, here is the NWS map, showing coverage at 2,000, 4000, and 10,000 ft above the radar.

The new radar will also be one of the first in the country to have dual-polarization, which means that it will send and receive microwaves with both horizontal and vertical orientations (see figure).