22 February 2013
An upgrade to Jersey’s weather radar will improve weather forecasting by providing better quality data.
The weather radar, which is located at La Moye, near the German lookout tower, has been upgraded to a Doppler radar. It can now detect the motion of rain droplets as well as the intensity and location of the rain; vital information that will help meteorologists assess the potential of storms to cause severe weather.
The improved radar will also provide cleaner and more accurate data for use in the computer models used to forecast the weather.
The upgrade forms part of a larger programme of upgrades by the UK Met Office across the whole of the UK weather radar network.
According to Jersey’s Principal Meteorological Officer, Anthony Pallot, the next stage of the UK Met Office project is to upgrade the network to enable ‘dual-polarisation’ on the existing radars.
‘Jersey should be in line for this upgrade sometime from mid-2015 onwards and that will bring further significant benefits. Dual-pol radars offer even more accuracy; by identifying the size, shape and variety of the precipitation, the dual-pol radar will help forecasters to see, far more precisely than they can now, whether it's rain, hail or snow heading towards us, and how much. And that should improve Jersey’s ability to forecast ahead, particularly in snow situations,' said Mr Pallot.
gov.je