Critical weather intelligence specialist Baron Weather is to provide a new weather radar system at Durango-La Plata County Airport in Colorado.
The new system, a C-band Dual Polarisation Weather Radar with turnkey installation and a Baron radar display and analysis system, is expected to provide residents of the Four Corners, in La Plata County, with far more accurate weather forecasts. As part of the same project, Baron Weather will also construct a 70ft radar tower at Durango-La Plata County Airport.
The Four Corners region, which is mostly rural, is part of the high Colorado Plateau. The area experiences numerous weather systems, organising on the plateau and then proceeding eastward through Colorado and into the central US. Unfortunately, because of the earth’s curvature and obstruction due to the mountains, the closest radar, in Grand Junction, isn’t able to accurately detect precipitation in the region.
More accurate detection of precipitation by the radar will lead to important forecast improvements in the region for winter weather, flooding, thunderstorms, and so on. According to Baron Weather, the radar should also improve weather forecasting by any meteorologist using the data, especially in the short term one-to-four hours. Other benefits for the county include improved ability by emergency management crews to plan for critical, weather-related emergencies, assist in the emergency management department’s operations planning, provide higher quality inputs for hydrologic modelling and the improvement of water management. The radar will also help the Department of Transportation’s snow removal, airport snow removal, and avalanche forecasting, Baron Weather said.
Image: Jeffrey Beall, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
