Live/Radar/Every radar/KCLE
Single radar / Ohio
Cleveland radar KCLE
The weather service radar at Cleveland, Ohio, alone: each picture it makes from its own scans, at four tilts from its lowest up, every few minutes. Reflectivity, velocity, storm relative velocity, correlation coefficient and differential reflectivity, the storms it tracks and where they are headed, and how high its beam passes. How to read them.
- Latest scan
- Scanning
- Precipitation mode, pattern 215
- Tilts
- 0.5°, 1.3°, 2.4°, 3.1°
- Stands at
- 41.413°N 81.860°W, 763 ft above sea level
- Reaches
- 286 mi with reflectivity, 186 mi with velocity, 143 mi with storm relative velocity
Storms it tracks
The radar follows each storm cell from scan to scan, measures the way it is moving, and puts it ahead 15 to 60 minutes. Each is drawn on the map above, its track to the hour ahead marked each quarter hour.
| Storm | Where | Moving | In 30 minutes | In 60 minutes | Last forecast off by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R9 | 4 mi east southeast of Bethesda, OH107 mi from the radar, bearing 155° | Toward the north at 33 mph | - | - | 6.4 mi |
| N9 | 4 mi north northeast of Willard, OH48 mi from the radar, bearing 244° | Toward the north at 26 mph | 3 mi west of Milan, OH | - | 2 mi |
| Z9 | At Wintersville, OH94 mi from the radar, bearing 140° | First seen this scan | - | - | 0 mi |
| U9 | 6 mi east northeast of Centerburg, OH83 mi from the radar, bearing 208° | Toward the north at 17 mph | - | - | 4.1 mi |
| X9 | 2 mi northwest of Garrettsville, OH39 mi from the radar, bearing 101° | Toward the northeast at 21 mph | 5 mi east southeast of Middlefield, OH | At Orwell, OH | 0.9 mi |
| T9 | 8 mi north of Cambridge, OH89 mi from the radar, bearing 171° | Toward the north northeast at 26 mph | - | - | 3.9 mi |
| V9 | 2 mi north northwest of Calcutta, OH83 mi from the radar, bearing 126° | Toward the north northeast at 51 mph | - | - | 4.6 mi |
| W9 | 3 mi east northeast of Oberlin, OH17 mi from the radar, bearing 247° | Toward the north northeast at 22 mph | 1 mi south southwest of Sheffield Lake, OH | 8 mi north northwest of Avon Lake, OH | 0.2 mi |
| H9 | 3 mi southwest of West Mayfield, PA90 mi from the radar, bearing 120° | Toward the north northeast at 24 mph | - | - | 3.7 mi |
| Y9 | 12 mi northeast of Sandusky, OH37 mi from the radar, bearing 288° | Toward the north at 25 mph | 40 mi northwest of the radar | 47 mi northwest of the radar | 0.6 mi |
How high it sees
The beam leaves the radar tilted up and the earth curves away under it, so the farther from the radar, the higher it passes. Rain or snow falling under the lowest beam is not seen: far from the radar, shallow snow and drizzle can fall unseen. The heights are the standard ones, the air bending the beam as the weather service’s own rule takes it.
| Tilt | 25 mi | 50 mi | 100 mi | 150 mi | 200 mi |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5° | 1,500 ft | 3,600 ft | 9,600 ft | 18,200 ft | 29,200 ft |
| 1.3° | 3,300 ft | 7,200 ft | 17,000 ft | 29,300 ft | 44,000 ft |
| 2.4° | 5,800 ft | 12,300 ft | 27,200 ft | 44,500 ft | 64,400 ft |
| 3.1° | 7,500 ft | 15,600 ft | 33,600 ft | 54,200 ft | 77,400 ft |
| Width | 2,200 ft | 4,400 ft | 8,800 ft | 13,100 ft | 17,500 ft |
How to read the pictures
- Reflectivity
- How strongly rain, snow and hail send the pulse back, in dBZ: the stronger, the heavier.
- Velocity
- The wind along the beam, in mph: green toward the radar, red away. Where the two meet tightly, the wind turns.
- Storm relative velocity
- The same wind with the storms’ own motion taken away, so a storm’s turning stands out: a tight pair of green and red is a rotating storm.
- Correlation coefficient
- How alike the returns of one pulse are, 0 to 1: rain and snow near 1, hail and melting snow lower, and debris a tornado lifts well below 0.8.
- Differential reflectivity
- How much wider than tall what falls is, in dB: large flat raindrops read high, hail and dry snow near 0.
Each picture is one tilt of one scan, as the radar sent it: its lowest tilt first, then three above it, the angles its scan pattern sets. A picture at a higher tilt sees higher into a storm, and farther over the ground at each distance. Press a point on the map to read the value there.
As data: /radar/now.json?show=sref&site=KCLE, the times of its frames, and /radar/s/KCLE/storms.json, the storms it tracks.