Live/Radar/Every radar/KLZK
Single radar / Arkansas
Little Rock radar KLZK
The weather service radar at Little Rock, Arkansas, alone: each picture it makes from its own scans, at four tilts from its lowest up, every few minutes. Reflectivity, velocity, storm relative velocity, correlation coefficient and differential reflectivity, the storms it tracks and where they are headed, and how high its beam passes. How to read them.
- Latest scan
- Scanning
- Precipitation mode, pattern 215
- Tilts
- 0.5°, 1.3°, 2.4°, 3.1°
- Stands at
- 34.836°N 92.262°W, 568 ft above sea level
- Reaches
- 286 mi with reflectivity, 186 mi with velocity, 143 mi with storm relative velocity
Storms it tracks
The radar follows each storm cell from scan to scan, measures the way it is moving, and puts it ahead 15 to 60 minutes. Each is drawn on the map above, its track to the hour ahead marked each quarter hour.
| Storm | Where | Moving | In 30 minutes | In 60 minutes | Last forecast off by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J2 | 10 mi north of Morrilton, AR43 mi from the radar, bearing 320° | Toward the east northeast at 20 mph | 12 mi north northwest of Wooster, AR | 11 mi north of Greenbrier, AR | 0.5 mi |
| Z1 | 4 mi north northeast of Clinton, AR56 mi from the radar, bearing 351° | Toward the east northeast at 26 mph | 9 mi north northeast of Fairfield Bay, AR | 10 mi southeast of Mountain View, AR | 0 mi |
| A2 | 46 mi north northwest of the radar46 mi from the radar, bearing 330° | Toward the northeast at 22 mph | - | - | 2.5 mi |
| M2 | 8 mi west of Clinton, AR55 mi from the radar, bearing 340° | First seen this scan | - | - | 0 mi |
| N1 | 6 mi west of Dardanelle, AR63 mi from the radar, bearing 296° | Toward the east northeast at 24 mph | - | - | 2.4 mi |
| X1 | 9 mi south of Marshall, AR69 mi from the radar, bearing 341° | Toward the east northeast at 22 mph | - | - | 2.2 mi |
| N2 | 12 mi north northeast of Atkins, AR52 mi from the radar, bearing 319° | First seen this scan | - | - | 0 mi |
| K2 | 11 mi southwest of Mountain View, AR64 mi from the radar, bearing 360° | Toward the southwest at 7 mph | - | - | 2.5 mi |
| L2 | 15 mi south southwest of Marshall, AR67 mi from the radar, bearing 336° | Toward the east northeast at 22 mph | 8 mi south southeast of Marshall, AR | 12 mi east of Marshall, AR | 0.3 mi |
How high it sees
The beam leaves the radar tilted up and the earth curves away under it, so the farther from the radar, the higher it passes. Rain or snow falling under the lowest beam is not seen: far from the radar, shallow snow and drizzle can fall unseen. The heights are the standard ones, the air bending the beam as the weather service’s own rule takes it.
| Tilt | 25 mi | 50 mi | 100 mi | 150 mi | 200 mi |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5° | 1,500 ft | 3,600 ft | 9,600 ft | 18,200 ft | 29,200 ft |
| 1.3° | 3,300 ft | 7,200 ft | 17,000 ft | 29,300 ft | 44,000 ft |
| 2.4° | 5,800 ft | 12,300 ft | 27,200 ft | 44,500 ft | 64,400 ft |
| 3.1° | 7,500 ft | 15,600 ft | 33,600 ft | 54,200 ft | 77,400 ft |
| Width | 2,200 ft | 4,400 ft | 8,800 ft | 13,100 ft | 17,500 ft |
How to read the pictures
- Reflectivity
- How strongly rain, snow and hail send the pulse back, in dBZ: the stronger, the heavier.
- Velocity
- The wind along the beam, in mph: green toward the radar, red away. Where the two meet tightly, the wind turns.
- Storm relative velocity
- The same wind with the storms’ own motion taken away, so a storm’s turning stands out: a tight pair of green and red is a rotating storm.
- Correlation coefficient
- How alike the returns of one pulse are, 0 to 1: rain and snow near 1, hail and melting snow lower, and debris a tornado lifts well below 0.8.
- Differential reflectivity
- How much wider than tall what falls is, in dB: large flat raindrops read high, hail and dry snow near 0.
Each picture is one tilt of one scan, as the radar sent it: its lowest tilt first, then three above it, the angles its scan pattern sets. A picture at a higher tilt sees higher into a storm, and farther over the ground at each distance. Press a point on the map to read the value there.
As data: /radar/now.json?show=sref&site=KLZK, the times of its frames, and /radar/s/KLZK/storms.json, the storms it tracks.