Rainfall Radar Upgrade

[Seanie]

http://www.met.ie/news/display.asp?ID=76

Shannon Weather Radar (Rainfall Radar) Modernisation
13 July 2010

Over the latter weeks of July and the first weeks of August major upgrade works will take place on the Rainfall Radar at Shannon Airport. Unfortunately, during this time the Rainfall Radar will have to be switched off frequently, leading to periods of outage for this service. Work will start on July 14th and is scheduled be complete by August 9th. Lengthy outages can be expected during this time. In particular, total outage is scheduled from the 14th to 30th of July.

The Shannon Rainfall Radar was installed in 1996. The upgrade works will ensure that the Radar can continue in service for another 10 years, and also improve the Radar performance. In recent times, there has been evidence that the Shannon Rainfall Radar’s sensitivity has been diminishing, and it has not been providing comprehensive detection of rain and showers within its designated area of coverage. The upgrade will restore the radar to a higher operational standard than when it was first installed.

While the interruptions to service over the next few weeks are unwelcome, they are necessary. The end result will be a state-of-the-art Rainfall Radar with a projected lifespan of a least a decade.

Met Éireann would like to apologise for this interruption in service and we thank you for your patience.

This all sounds like great news fro paddlers.

[Seanie]

As of 2:30 pm today the new Shannon Rainfall Radar is online
It has yet to be fully calibrated full, but its looking good.

[EoinH]

The NRA have also upgraded their weather stations and are continuing to do so. It is now possible to get updates every 20 mins for most areas in ireland. It doesn't give you the rainfall amount though just whether it is actually raining at the time. It's great for checking road conditions before a long drive though!

http://www.nra.ie/RoadWeatherInformation/

[EoinH]

This is the best radar service I have come across. It is well worth the €4/mth fee as it covers the whole of the UK and Ireland and is more precise than the Met Eireann radar. It came in handy over the past few weeks as it was bang on for predicting snowfall.

http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?acti ... adar;sess=