Try R.A.P.

by Amber
(Huntsville, AL )

Pretty good little article, though it's probably important to point out that most radar returns especially from NOAA are only about 5 minutes behind the actual happening on the ground.

Also, nice to point out that these days radar returns can pick up much more than just rain and storms, they can also pick up debris fields when a tornado is on the ground...pretty cool, huh?

Here's a good one I've found that helps me a TON:
RAP is made by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. It's operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. As a storm spotter, this site is very informative..even shows CAPE values for the nation.

Weather data is so important to our daily lives and helps seriously save lives in the midst of damaging storms. I think it's awesome that you put this out there for people who may not know much about it to check out, but I think it would be more interesting to people who weren't weather nerds like myself, if you added some "cool" information... (ex: debris fields)

Thanks for the article! Nice Job!

Barry's Response - Thank you Amber.

First of all, CAPE stands for convective-ly available potential energy. The energy used to fuel a mesoscale storm system.

Debris fields are garbage and dust picked up and moved around by winds.

The NOAA RAP real time radar page is available by searching at https://www.google.com/search?q=weather+rap+ucar+edu+radar&rlz=1C1GGGE_enCA518CA518&oq=weather+rap+ucar+edu+radar+&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64l2j5.12631j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 - with it and you Java Applet, you can quickly view up to the most recent 12 hours of radar images for any US radar. For the techies, there are tons of other options to play around with as well.

Have fun with this.



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