WENATCHEE — Storm detection below 10,000 feet is taking shape.
“We don’t have real-time weather data,” said Jim Kuntz, executive director of the Chelan Douglas Regional Port Authority, referring to parts of Chelan and Douglas counties with inadequate weather radar coverage.
However, Kuntz said at a meeting of the three Chelan County commissions on March 26 that the port, Chelan County and others have made “tremendous progress” in addressing the factor of lack of climate policy after it emerged in August.
Climavision, founded in Kentucky, plans to install 200 radars in the next four years, adding up to 4 radars in Washington, at no cost to the community, said Tara Leigh Goode, vice president of strategic partnerships and radar operations at Climavision. The company earned $100 million from The Rise Fund, TPG’s global effect in creating an investment platform to fund structure and maintenance work, Goode said. TPG Inc. , founded in Fort Worth, Texas, formerly known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital. , is an American personal equity firm.
He also said that location efforts had begun in Chelan County and that the radars were located and stored in a warehouse. Since 2021, Climavision has installed 26 radars in 14 states, at a rate of two to three per month, he said. saying.
“When we say, ‘We’re looking for a location for the radar,’ we’re literally looking for a network or a public frame to help us locate the location of the radar. . . It’s: “Help us locate a location for the radar. ” at home. “We will provide the data to your public safety network. We’ll market them into other tactics to help us cover the load of this radar.
The National Weather Service uses five Doppler radars, which are no longer manufactured, to monitor the state’s weather conditions in real time: Spokane, Pendleton, Grays Harbor, Seattle and Portland. None of them cover the weather below 10,000 feet on the northeastern slopes of Las Cascadas, creating a hole in the canopy. Doppler radars west of central Washington are “stuck through the (Cascade) mountains,” Jason Detamore, an environmental officer with the Chelan County Department of Public Works, told a meeting of the three commissions in August. 8.
The WSR-88D (Doppler) was first built and tested in 1988, according to the NWS website. The NWS also has the “Next Generation Weather Radar System (NEXRAD), which is a network of 160 high-resolution S-band Doppler weather radars. “.
Climavision’s weather radars are solid-state, dual-polarimetry, X-band radars, which transmit and obtain “pulses in landscape and portrait orientation,” according to the National Weather Service’s website. “As a result, retrospective frequencies provide measurements of the horizontal and vertical dimensions of targets, giving forecasters greater estimates of target size, shape, and variety. “
“One of the most important things for us is, as we build this radar network, to make sure that this data gets to the (national) weather service,” said Apoorva Bajaj, government business development manager at Climavision. If they have access to this data in real-time, they will be able to account for further monitoring and warnings. They can combine this data with what they already have and do a better job.
He added that Climavisión has two agreements with the NWS.
“The first one is. . . a cooperation agreement in studies and progress, in which we work with their most productive laboratories (NWS). . . in which they basically look for how to integrate our knowledge into other products and facilities that they are using lately. use and give back what we can do for the quality of this personal system,” Bajaj said. “But we also realize that as we implement these networked paintings, there’s now a desire to fill that gap and bring the knowledge to the public. ” Right now, as those radars are online, we have a knowledge contract with the Weather Service through the Office of Observations (NWS) in Washington, Washington. D. C. , through a Knowledge Production Program (NWS) in the hands of forecasting offices. Washington, D. C. , through a program of. . . (where) they pay a small fee right now to access our radar knowledge however they want.
About 20 NWS offices have 12 or 13 radars out of Climavision’s existing 26 radars, he said, and the NWS will have more as they become operational.
Goode said Climavision can prepare its X-band radar in 4 weeks, depending on network support, and that installation will take just 3 days. From there, it takes 30 to 45 days for weather data to be transmitted to public protection services. she said.
“We have planned two radars for north-central Washington that will provide policy for the entire region,” Goode wrote in an email to Wenatchee World. “We’ve just gained some advice on conceivable sites and they vary depending on the precise location. . I haven’t had a chance to review them yet, but they would provide low-level policies to Chelan and Douglas counties and neighboring counties.
“The topography of the domain is challenging, so it will take some time,” he added. “I would love to have them online in 2024. It will depend on many factors, but our goal would be to have two online by 2024. “
“I’m going to work on my ‘Tetris radar,'” Goode wrote in an email to Kuntz. “As I’ve pointed out, the radars are ready, and with the traction of the site and the eventual traction of PUD visitors and such, we can possibly “have a chance to move forward on our timeline. “
In exchange for a location for the radar, Climavision allows cities/counties to access a URL of a live radar viewer.
“It’s anything that Commissioner (Jim) Huffman talked to me about on the second day of my arrival here, to get my attention to, and it’s despite everything that’s going on,” Kuntz said. “We have a lot of spaces that are just not covered and that’s unacceptable. We have a less reliable system; We can’t make predictive predictions and this has an effect on our ability to respond to first responders.
He added that the NWS tried to redirect radar beams in Spokane and Pendleton earlier this year to see if they could find anything at the lower points, but it didn’t work, so the NWS recommended Chelan County work with a private agency.
Kuntz also said that politicians “are very interested in implementing this formula in north-central Washington. “Wenatchee Mayor Mike Poirier said he traveled with the port earlier this year to Washington, D. C. , to meet with U. S. Rep. Dan Newhouse and U. S. Senators Kim. Schrier, Mary Cantwell, and Patty Murray.