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Major Hurricane Helene


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3 minutes ago, WxSynopsisDavid said:

Radar attenuation. Those towers are very large and blocking view of the west and south side of the storm. Reason why the intensification is surprising to you because you didn’t account for such.

It's weird how the same area isn't filled in regardless of radar used, and that it isn't attenuating the area further away based on the radar location. It's a strange explanation that defies my understanding of how a radar functions, but it comes up every time we have one of these storms, which is why I remember they have this look.

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5 minutes ago, WxSynopsisDavid said:

Radar attenuation. Those towers are very large and blocking view of the west and south side of the storm. Reason why the intensification is surprising to you because you didn’t account for such.

 

3 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

aIpdQ5G.png
 

Things are about to pick up. 

Wouldn't be surprised if you lost cell signal with the outside of the wall.  Those towers keep backbuilding NE of their predecessors.  The lightning must be incredible from some vantages.   

The lack of radar returns on the SSW side are exactly 180 degrees counter to the tallest towers.   

Enjoy the ride, be safe. 

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6 minutes ago, WxSynopsisDavid said:

Radar attenuation. Those towers are very large and blocking view of the west and south side of the storm. Reason why the intensification is surprising to you because you didn’t account for such.

We literally do this every single storm storm. Because they always look this way. Regardless of if it’s attenuation or not, nobody should be surprised the backside eyewall looks ragged.

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6 minutes ago, WxSynopsisDavid said:

Radar attenuation. Those towers are very large and blocking view of the west and south side of the storm. Reason why the intensification is surprising to you because you didn’t account for such.

It is not radar attenuation. Both radars, TLH and TBW show it. Also noted on IR imagery. 
 

It’s clearly the intense convection helping. Other storms have shown some raggedness, but she’s really helping offset this with vigorous convection NW to NE of the center. It was just an observation. 

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1 minute ago, WxSynopsisDavid said:

Radar attenuation. Those towers are very large and blocking view of the west and south side of the storm. Reason why the intensification is surprising to you because you didn’t account for such.


That’s not really attenuation.

What’s happening is that the density of the precipitable water is such that the majority of the transmit pulse energy is returned to the transmitter at that point. 

The energy that DOES get through that first “wall” is too weak to reflect a signal back through it, so it appears like there’s nothing beyond those first returns.

likely a hardware limitation if I had to guess. Though there might be a way with time domain reflectometry to recover some of that energy. Would be a cool grad student project.

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2 minutes ago, OSUmetstud said:

The northern eyewall is the only part producing lightning. The southern eyewall is likely not open but it's also weaker. 

Well, yeah.  That's just basic physics.  That's where you'd expect lightning to be.

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1 minute ago, OSUmetstud said:

The northern eyewall is the only part producing lightning. The southern eyewall is likely not open but it's also weaker. 

Agreed. People saying attenuation are denying the fact that we can see directly into the southern eyewall from TBW radar and the northern with TLH. It’s likely closed but it’s robbed of the convection which are those VHT’s and mesovorts in the N/NE. 

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8 minutes ago, NeffsvilleWx said:


That’s not really attenuation.

What’s happening is that the density of the precipitable water is such that the majority of the transmit pulse energy is returned to the transmitter at that point. 

The energy that DOES get through that first “wall” is too weak to reflect a signal back through it, so it appears like there’s nothing beyond those first returns.

likely a hardware limitation if I had to guess. Though there might be a way with time domain reflectometry to recover some of that energy. Would be a cool grad student project.

If this is so, why does a radar to the east of the storm in Tampa show the same as one in Tallahassee. The explanation makes no sense.

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