Tuesday, August 01, 2006

NEXRAD radar and cars


The NEXRAD radar near Chicago is bending back down to ground and lighting up cars on the highways south of town. I've labeled the image above with arrows to the returns. This image adds the highway overlay to the radar, showing the returns to be from I-65, I-57, and I-39. Earlier you could see I-55 on the return as well.

Looking at a balloon sounding from the nearest area (Lincoln, IL) shows an inversion at about 6000ft (1800m):
.
This could be bouncing the beam back onto the ground on this hot steamy night.

The smallest arrow on the annotated radar image--what is that sitting out in eastern Lee County? It's static in the animation.

UPDATE: Google Earth link. What's at the corner of Beemerville Rd, Compton Rd, and 251?
2nd UPDATE: Silos on a topographic high?
Or a tall AM antenna? Probably the antenna.

3rd UPDATE: The antenna is 150m tall, listed in the FCC Antenna database, owned by ComEd.

No comments: