BUFFALO, N.Y. — Announced late last month, the National Weather Service's radar in Buffalo (KBUF) will be taken offline for routine maintenance beginning October 8.
This means that local radar imagery from KBUF will not be available for an expected seven days. Other regional NWS radar, including Cleveland (KCLE), Binghamton (KBGM) and Montague (KTYX), will be working to provide composite radar imagery for Western New York while KBUF is down.
This scheduled, routine maintenance is part of a program that includes upgrades for all government radars at NWS sites across the country. There are 159 operational radars receiving these upgrades.
Like all 159 radars, KBUF is a WSR-88D. WSR stands for "Weather Surveillance Radar," with 88D being the type and year the radar was implemented, Doppler and 1988. Since these radars have been in service for over 30 years, so continuous upgrades are needed for these radars to perform accurately.
During this maintenance, KBUF will be receiving a new generator, fuel tanks and accompanying components needed for operation if the power goes out at the radar site. Another scheduled maintenance will also take place by 2023 to possibly install a new pedestal and equipment shelter (a radome).
All of these upgrades are provided by the Radar Operations Center in Norman, Oklahoma, a subsidiary of NOAA and NWS. Their job is to make sure government weather radar are up to date with the latest technology. With these efforts, the hope is to keep the current model radar operations through the 2030's.
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