Our View: Time to fill gaps in weather radar

• Published April 20, 2007

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Weather forecasters in this state are guessing about the severity of upcoming storms because they have inadequate information - primarily weather readings for what's happening on the Olympic Peninsula and in the Pacific Ocean.

The biggest gap in coastal weather radar coverage anywhere in the United States is on the Washington and Oregon coasts.

It's time for the federal government to invest the money to install the necessary equipment which, in turn, will better protect Washington residents.

In the early 1990s, the National Weather Service installed powerful Doppler weather radar across the country. Those Doppler readers record precipitation and winds and have revolutionized forecasting, according to Cliff Mass, an atmospheric-sciences professor at the University of Washington who is leading the charge for additional coastal systems.

But there are significant coverage gaps along the coasts of Oregon and Washington. All it would take to get a complete picture of incoming weather would be new Doppler stations at - say - Westport along the Washington coast and Newport in Oregon. Each station would be able to record conditions up to 138 miles away.

According to Mass, new stations in those locations would:

* Give meteorologists the wind and precipitation readings they need to provide more complete weather notifications for the entire Northwest - six to 18 hours - in advance.

* Give coastal search-and-rescue personnel - and military operation officials - critical information on wind and precipitation levels.

* Provide coastal communities - for the first time - with reliable information on stream flows and flood forecasting.

* Give researchers and weather watchers a complete picture of incoming storms vs. today's incomplete pictures with gaps in coverage.

* Assist Homeland Security officials with crucial data that could be used, for example, to forecast toxic plume dispersion.

We in Western Washington have come to accept the fact that there's a blind spot in weather data. But that doesn't mean we have to continue to accept this inadequate information.

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