Kentucky Based Company Improves Radar Coverage for Central Minnesota

(KNSI) — Radar coverage in west central Minnesota just got better thanks to a Kentucky based company.

Climavision officials installed the radar site in the town of Wendell in Grant County. It’s just south of Fergus Falls.

Since the 1990s, the National Weather Service has monitored storm systems across Minnesota with NEXRAD S-band radars located near Duluth, Minneapolis, and cities in neighboring states. Those radars are excellent when covering urban centers but leave many parts of rural Minnesota – where a quarter of the state’s people live – without coverage, especially at lower altitudes.

Where the new radar site lies is just far enough away from the National Weather Service radar sites in Chanhassen, Aberdeen and Fargo, there was a real gap in coverage for severe weather events. That could potentially endanger lives if people there didn’t get accurate information quickly.

The radar installed in Grant County is called dual polarization X-band radar which not only looks at the storm cell itself, it can also detect things like a hail core or a debris ball which can pinpoint tornadoes and show the direction a storm cell is taking, which allows authorities to give better warning to those in the path. Having the capacity to see that is extremely important, especially at night, when funnel clouds are harder to detect via the ground truth a storm spotter can give.

“The Upper Midwest is prone to exactly the kinds of dangerous weather events that can develop at low altitudes, and it can happen year-round,” said Climavision co-founder and CEO Chris Goode. “We’re excited to bring a new level of awareness to the people who live in this part of Greater Minnesota, and the many more who visit.”

Climavision plans to install at least seven more sites across the state.

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