Weather Type Detection Hail Not Working?

[Tim]

Hi,

 

We've just had a hail storm move through Bristol. I'm obviously interested as I go storm chasing in the UK to see the precipitation type work. I've logged onto the Netweather Radar and our hail storm seems to be showing as rain? Is there any reason for this & what colour will hail be displayed as?

 

I've attached a pic of the storm that moved through both the precip type one and the normal.

 

Tim

[Paul]

Hail's something which rarely gets detected currently - we're working on improving that aspect of the weather type detection

[Tim]

Ok thanks How will it be displayed? As there any possibility in the future it will be able to do hail size like the various radar software programs in the States do?

[Nick L]

You have to remember that the US has a much more advanced radar network than ours, and you get far more data from their radars too.

[Tim]

Yeah I was just trying to work out what the UK's radars could do. The reason I ask as previously I looked into this & read this article http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/olympics/doppler-radar-and-london-2012

 

It suggests to me ours is fairly advanced, I noticed this bit

 

"Doppler radar not only measured when and how much rain was falling but provided much more detailed information by analysing the change in the frequency of the radar echo caused by the raindrop's motion. This was then used to improve the forecast of the changes in wind speed and direction within a rainstorm."

 

It gives the impression ours could display a base velocity if it can do that if I've understood that correctly (maybe not.) I suppose is also depends on what data they are prepared to give out on the public domain as to whether it could be used or not?

[Nick L]

Yeah I was just trying to work out what the UK's radars could do. The reason I ask as previously I looked into this & read this article http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/olympics/doppler-radar-and-london-2012

 

It suggests to me ours is fairly advanced, I noticed this bit

 

"Doppler radar not only measured when and how much rain was falling but provided much more detailed information by analysing the change in the frequency of the radar echo caused by the raindrop's motion. This was then used to improve the forecast of the changes in wind speed and direction within a rainstorm."

 

It gives the impression ours could display a base velocity if it can do that if I've understood that correctly (maybe not.) I suppose is also depends on what data they are prepared to give out on the public domain as to whether it could be used or not?

 

Yeah they do seem more advanced than I thought. It turns out that we are currently undergoing a nationwide upgrade to dual-polarisation radars:

 

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/water/radarimprovements/timescales

 

These are very useful for determining precip-types, but I doubt all that data will be available to the public sadly.

[Tim]

Yeah they do seem more advanced than I thought. It turns out that we are currently undergoing a nationwide upgrade to dual-polarisation radars:

 

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/water/radarimprovements/timescales

 

These are very useful for determining precip-types, but I doubt all that data will be available to the public sadly.

 

Yeah it would be good if it could. It would basically mean Netweather Extra could do a GRLevel 3 style radar & then maybe Netweather could issue severe storm alerts via social media just like happens in the States if we were to get storms like on the 28th of June 2012 (the one to the Northeast of Birmingham must have had near 4 inch hail at it's peak) again which no doubt will eventually happen again. Hopefully the Met Office will make more information available once the upgrade is completed or someone from Netweather could perhaps speak to them to see if the ball could start rolling for Netweather Extra to get the information?