Some brand new style radars coming on the site throughout the course of today. It was many moons ago when Metcheck launched precipitype for the UK. In the USA their dopplar radar system could distinguish between types of precipitation i.e whether it was falling as rain, sleet or snow, but the UK had still to catch up. So, we used a mix of radar images and high resolution live data to tell what it was falling as and you guys seemed to love it.
That was then... and since then the idea has been copied by pretty much every man, woman, dog and cow. But we always try to bring you budding meteorologists some new toys and gadgets which let you see the weather in a more understandable and unique way and throughout today you will have four new radars to use. We are also rolling them out for Europe as well as our global radars which use satellite rain detection! They are....
Wind Radar - This will show you not just where it's raining/snowing etc but also how strong the wind is too. So, you will be able to tell whether the rain coming in is just rain or whether it will be wet and windy... handy for knowing if you need a brolly or mac!
SnowLay Radar - This will show you where any snow falling will settle based on the current ground conditions. This will be awesome to know whether the snow coming in will melt on impact or whether you need to go get that shovel!
Advanced Precipitype - At the moment, precipitype will show you whether the stuff falling from the sky is rain, sleet, snow or freeing rain. The advanced one has over ten variables and will show you whether the rain is misty rain, showery etc etc.
Height Radar - This is a nugget this one... It shows you the makeup of the rain and whether it is rain, sleet or snow at various levels in the atmosphere. We tend to use this one in house for things like forecasting the risk of freezing rain, sleet and also things like hail and snow pellets.
The new radars will appear throughout the day on the site and we hope you enjoy using them and the next generation of radar images to improve your forecasting and observations.
METEOROLOGIST : VERYEXCITED
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