Realtime WDSSII Weather Data (KML)

The radar images are updated every 5 minutes (2 minutes for velocity products), and have a 1 km grid resolution. Data are merged from WSR-88D radars across the contintental United States. Regional radar images should load faster than the continental grid. The images are no longer in geotiff format, but are PNG files with the geographic information embedded in the asociated KML file.

NWS warning polygons are updated every minute, while storm report maps are updated hourly.

Scientific Background Information

The continental US (CONUS) WDSSII system is described in:

Lakshmanan, V., T. M. Smith, K. Cooper, J. J. Levit, G. J. Stumpf, and D. R. Bright, 2006: High-resolution radar data and products over the Continental United States. 22nd Conference on Interactive Information Processing Systems, Atlanta, Amer. Meteor. Soc.
Lakshmanan, V., T. Smith, G. J. Stumpf, and K. Hondl, 2006 (accepted): The warning decision support system - integrated information (WDSS-II). Weather and Forecasting.

while a brief description of the products in Google Earth are:

Smith, T.M. and V. Lakshmanan, 2006: Utilizing Google Earth as a GIS platform for weather applications. 22nd Conference on Interactive Information Processing Systems, Atlanta, GA, Amer. Meteo. Soc.

The reflectivity quality control technique:

Lakshmanan, V., A. Fritz, T. Smith, K. Hondl, and G. J. Stumpf, 2006 (under review): An automated technique to quality control radar reflectivity data. J. Applied Meteorology.

How the "Rotation Tracks" product is derived:

Smith, T.M. and K. L. Elmore, 2004: The use of radial velocity derivatives to diagnose rotation and divergence. Preprints, 11th Conf. on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace, Hyannis, MA, Amer. Meteor. Soc., P5.6 - CD preprints.
and some Rotation Tracks issues are described in this picture.

A preliminary evaluation of the spatial hail size estimation ("Hail swath") products, as compared to the WSR-88D products:

Ortega, K.L, and T.M. Smith, 2006: Verification of multi-sensor, multi-radar hail diagnosis techniques. 1st Severe Local Storms Special Symposium, Atlanta, GA, Amer. Meteo. Soc.

Merging data from multiple radars:

Lakshmanan, V., T. Smith, K. Hondl, G. J. Stumpf, and A. Witt, 2006 (in press): A real-time, three dimensional, rapidly updating, heterogeneous radar merger technique for reflectivity, velocity and derived products. Weather and Forecasting.

Disclaimer: Use at your own risk. Data are experimental and may experience any number of problems including being late or not being available at all. Do not use for protection of life or property, or for any commercial use without permission.