Radars provide more precise urban rain forecasts

Reliable rain and flood forecasts are particularly important in densely populated urban environments. By making use of cities' dense radar network, more precise rain forecasts can be provided for different areas.

The suitability of weather radar-based methods for urban environments has been studied in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the US. The research developed a two-stage forecasting method: first, the rain bodies' area of movement is traced using consecutive radar measurements, and then the uncertainties in the forecast are simulated. Through the simulation process, a multitude of forecasts are produced, representing a range of possible forecasts for the strength of rainfall.

Further information

researcher Seppo Pulkkinen, seppo.pulkkinen@fmi.fi

Pulkkinen, S., Chandrasekar, V., and Harri, A.-M., Nowcasting of Precipitation in the High-Resolution Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) Urban Radar Remote Sensing Network, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, pp. 1-15, 2018, doi: 10.1109/JSTARS.2018.2840491

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8386425/