Single radar / North Dakota

Minot AFB radar KMBX

The weather service radar at Minot AFB, North Dakota, 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: 6:30 AM UTC
Scanning: Precipitation mode, pattern 215
Tilts: 0.5°, 1.3°, 2.4°, 3.1°
Stands at: 48.392°N 100.864°W, 1,493 ft above sea level
Reaches: 286 mi with reflectivity, 186 mi with velocity, 143 mi with storm relative velocity

KMBX on the map

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 cells KMBX tracks, from its scan of 6:24 AM UTC
Storm	Where	Moving	In 30 minutes	In 60 minutes	Last forecast off by
L3	5 mi south of Tioga, ND96 mi from the radar, bearing 268°	Toward the northeast at 62 mph	-	-	2.6 mi
M3	119 mi southwest of the radar119 mi from the radar, bearing 229°	Toward the northeast at 43 mph	-	-	4.4 mi
R2	64 mi west northwest of the radar64 mi from the radar, bearing 285°	Toward the northeast at 49 mph	58 mi northwest of the radar	-	1.7 mi
N3	13 mi southwest of Washburn, ND88 mi from the radar, bearing 191°	Toward the northeast at 48 mph	-	-	2.6 mi
F2	11 mi east southeast of Garrison, ND56 mi from the radar, bearing 196°	Toward the northeast at 44 mph	14 mi south of Velva, ND	15 mi east northeast of Velva, ND	0.3 mi
J2	70 mi north of the radar70 mi from the radar, bearing 4°	Toward the northeast at 49 mph	89 mi north northeast of the radar	109 mi north northeast of the radar	0.8 mi
A2	100 mi north northeast of the radar100 mi from the radar, bearing 18°	Toward the east northeast at 45 mph	-	-	2.5 mi
K3	14 mi east northeast of Hazen, ND73 mi from the radar, bearing 199°	Toward the north northeast at 41 mph	13 mi east of Garrison, ND	10 mi south of Velva, ND	0.9 mi
S3	59 mi north of the radar59 mi from the radar, bearing 355°	First seen this scan	-	-	0 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.

The middle of each tilt’s beam, in feet above the radar’s antenna, and how wide the beam has grown
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=KMBX, the times of its frames, and /radar/s/KMBX/storms.json, the storms it tracks.