Live/Radar/Every radar/KSOX
Single radar / California
Santa Ana Mountains radar KSOX
The weather service radar at Santa Ana Mountains, California, 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
- 33.818°N 117.636°W, 3,041 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F2 | 4 mi north northwest of Lake Forest, CA9 mi from the radar, bearing 206° | Toward the west at 21 mph | - | - | 7.1 mi |
| T2 | 4 mi northeast of Desert Hot Springs, CA69 mi from the radar, bearing 79° | Toward the west at 41 mph | - | - | 5.9 mi |
| X2 | 3 mi east of Lakeview, CA32 mi from the radar, bearing 89° | Toward the west at 21 mph | - | - | 4.1 mi |
| Z2 | 3 mi south southeast of Rancho Mission Viejo, CA23 mi from the radar, bearing 173° | First seen this scan | - | - | 0 mi |
| Y2 | 3 mi east northeast of Woodcrest, CA18 mi from the radar, bearing 72° | First seen this scan | - | - | 0 mi |
| V2 | 2 mi south southwest of San Antonio Heights, CA22 mi from the radar, bearing 355° | Toward the north northwest at 47 mph | 9 mi southeast of Littlerock, CA | - | 2.4 mi |
| B3 | 15 mi northeast of Lucerne Valley, CA73 mi from the radar, bearing 44° | First seen this scan | - | - | 0 mi |
| W2 | 3 mi east northeast of Banning, CA46 mi from the radar, bearing 78° | Toward the west northwest at 20 mph | - | - | 3.5 mi |
| E3 | 11 mi east northeast of Big Bear City, CA66 mi from the radar, bearing 58° | First seen this scan | - | - | 0 mi |
| I3 | 2 mi west of Redlands, CA30 mi from the radar, bearing 56° | First seen this scan | - | - | 0 mi |
| D3 | 2 mi southwest of Bloomington, CA20 mi from the radar, bearing 38° | 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.
| 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=KSOX, the times of its frames, and /radar/s/KSOX/storms.json, the storms it tracks.