National Weather Service Radar Set for Shutdown During Equipment Upgrade

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Beginning Jan. 8, the coastal radar used by the National Weather Service forecast office in Seattle will be offline for about four days while technicians work on a technological upgrade to the equipment. 

An email from the NWS in Seattle noted that work was previously scheduled to begin in October but strong weather events pushed back the timetable. A press release noted that the shutdown was planned to minimize any potential impacts to office operations and added that during the outage, radar coverage will still be available from nearby radar sites in Portland and Camano Island. 

The upgrade to the radar system will include the installation of a new signal processor, which will replace the current obsolete technology in place. That change is meant to improve processing speed and data quality, while providing added functionality and supporting security efforts.

The project is the first of four major upgrades, collectively referred to as Service Life Extension Projects, that are scheduled to be implemented in the next five years. Those projects, which include refurbishing the transmitter, pedestal and equipment shelters, are intended to replace and upgrade major components of the 20-year-old WSR-88D radars in an effort to keep them operable into the 2030s.



The upgrades are being powered by a $150 million investment cobbled together by the three organizations that use the radars. 

Those organizations are the NOAA National Weather Service, the United States Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration.