New Radar System Gives Oklahoma Advanced Weather Info

As we head into severe weather season, Green Country is equipped with a new radar system. Local meteorologists said it's advancing storm detection here in Oklahoma.

Dual Pole is Doppler Radar, except it sends out and receives two signals instead of one.

This is the first tornado season in Oklahoma that the technology will be put to the test.

Radar systems like this act as a window into the atmosphere for meteorologists, playing a vital role with the warning systems for severe weather.

And now with this new technology, meteorologists like Steve Piltz are getting a clearer picture of what's above.

"We have a mixture of a horizontal beam, and a vertical beam, and by measuring the differences between the two power returns, we can tell a little bit about what's going on inside the storm," said Piltz of the NWS.

There are more than 150 towers across the country, recently upgraded to Dual Polarization.

It allows them to know when it's snow, rain or hail long before it ever hits the ground.

It can even tell if there's something else in the air.

"If there's debris there's most likely a tornado on the ground," said News On 6 meteorologist Dick Faurot.

Debris shows up as dark spots on radar.

Combined with other data, it can be a valuable tool in getting the warning out especially at night.

"It's going to give us a little more confidence in what we're seeing," Faurot said.

Dual Pole will also help when there's a possibility of flash flooding.

"We get a much better estimate of how much rain is falling in an area," Faurot said.

Which leads to more accurate forecast in the short term.

But it's the long term benefits that meteorologists don't know yet, that could have some of the biggest impacts.

"We hope that it will be able to shed some light on how tornados form and how storms work," Piltz said.

"We're pretty encouraged that we're going to be able to do some good with the new technology."

Piltz says the next big improvement in radar is called Phased Array which is currently used to detect missiles.

It would allow for updates every 30 seconds, compared to the four minutes with the current radar.