Vance Radar Will Be Down From Feb. 14-Mar. 4

We just learned from the NWS that the first radar to test dual polarization will now be the Vance Air Force Base (VNX) radar (earlier reports said Wichita or a couple of others, with down times sometime in March). From February 14 through March 4, the Vance radar will be down (all data will be unavailable, even if weather happens) as they install dual-pol hardware and software.  This test is to demonstrate that the dual-pol system on a DOD radar can successfully function uninterrupted for a 30-day period.  Since Vance is a DOD radar, the data may be unavailable to outside users (including OK-First participants) at any time, so we expect that this down time may have a lower impact than when other radars are being outfitted for dual pol.

For more details, please check out the message from the NWS: http://www.mesonet.org/data/public/noaa/text/archive/2011/02/11/PNS/201102111650.KWBC_PNS_WSH.304.txt