LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - We have observant viewers!
Meteorologist Mariel Ruiz explained a bit on Facebook Live this morning but wanted to write an article in case you missed it. If it is raining, but you don’t see it on the radar, one of three things could be happening.
- The radar layer of the app is turned off. This is unlikely because the default settings turn the layer on. If yours is turned off, click “layers” on the bottom right of the screen and make sure Radar is highlighted.
- Your area may be in a “blind zone.” Much like vehicles. Radars have blind zones too. When radar sends out a beam to detect the location and size of rain droplets, it does not follow the earth’s curvature. So, rain that is far away will be difficult to detect because of its distance and its height. Most of Arkansas has great radar coverage, so this is not often a problem.
3. This is the more likely scenario for this morning. The radar settings need to be adjusted. Radar detects all sorts of objects, not just rain and hail. Sometimes radar can pick up on bugs, birds, buildings, and even dirt! Our radars are typically adjusted to read reflectivity (dBZ) in the range of average sized raindrops. Sometimes, mist cannot be seen on radar because the raindrops are too tiny. This morning, I adjusted our radar to read smaller reflectivity values. While some radar “noise” was seen, it was easier to spot the mist and how it was moving.