MISSOULA — While the weather has been sporadic across the Missoula Valley recently, one tool meteorologists use to monitor those weather changes is down for maintenance.
We visited the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Missoula to see how they're keeping forecasts coming while their radar gets repaired.
While Missoula’s radar is down for routine maintenance, NWS forecasters are working hard to keep people informed with all this wind and thunderstorms.
“There are many platforms that the Weather Service uses to monitor storms and to help keep people safe, including in those wildfires and in communities like Missoula,” said Dan Zumpfe.
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Radar is typically a staple of weather reports, according to Zumpfe, acting meteorologist in charge with the National Weather Service in Missoula.
It rotates and looks at the atmosphere in horizontal slices at different elevations.
“Basically, it's getting a full picture of what's in the atmosphere and what that will mean for either rain on the ground or snow or any other kind of object,” he said.
Radar helps forecasters get a look at what is going on above us but sometimes, the radar systems need a little help themselves.
Missoula’s radar has been running on the top of Point Six Mountain since the early 1960s, with this current system in service since 1994. Now, contractors are working to repair the system so it’s ready to rotate for another couple decades.
The maintenance is set to be completed around August 9.
“Every once in a while, we have to do extensive maintenance on it to make sure that it's able to function, because it's rotating up there 24/7, 365 otherwise,” Zumpfe said. “They are working as quickly as they can to replace the panels in the exterior of the ray dome that's protecting the actual radar.”
But, while the radar is down, Zumpfe told MTN that meteorologists have plenty of other tools to keep an eye on the sky.
The National Weather Service uses surface observations, like those from their office by the airport, and data picked up from neighboring radar systems in Great Falls and Spokane. They also use satellite data, which has become increasingly helpful thanks to technological advances.
“I know that some may be very anxious about the radar being down for maintenance, particularly in the time of year that we're in now,” he said. “What that does is helps us identify the features, like the thunderstorms we've been having for the last several days, and be able to key in on ‘OK, what is the severity, what is the impact to the communities from what we're seeing on satellite?’”
Meteorologists are relying on these other tools more until the radar comes back up in early August, ready for another few decades of forecasting.
“It is imperative that we do this on our terms rather than in a you know reactive way,” Zumpfe said. “We want to get it done quickly and completely and, hopefully, we'll be back online and running that 24/7, 365 mode again.”
