Advanced
Whether you’re looking for weather software placefiles/color palettes, mapping plots, or guides, this is the spot!
Software
Color Palettes
Color palettes, otherwise known as color tables, are a modification to a weather radar’s color viewing. You might see the palette on a radar legend or on the side of your screen. In certain software or radar websites. You can modify, edit, or add your own color palette. To avoid the long and tedious process of you learning the formats of each software, I have created several for use in the listed software or websites.
Compatible Programs: GR2Analyst, GRLevel3, SupercellWX, AtticRadar, WeatherWise, RadarScope, RadarOmega
Color Palettes
Reflectivity
Base Reflectivity (BR) shows how heavy precipitation is within a radar gate (pixel). Higher values indicate higher precipitation intensity. BR values above 60 dBZ sometimes indicate large hailstones.
Primary BR
Velocity
Velocity is the radar’s estimation of a storm’s motion, or speed, in a certain direction. There are two types of velocity, Base Velocity (BV) and Storm Relative Velocity (SRV). If you are using GR2Analyst, GRLevel3, or SupercellWX, download both BV and SRV and import them into your programs. If you are using any other type of radar program, just download BV.
Base Velocity 1 Storm Relative Velocity 1
Correlation Coefficient
Correlation Coefficient (CC) is the measurement of precipitation shape consistency. Values closest to 100% show precipitation (rain, snow, etc.). Lower values that are in a storm cell with high reflectivity values often indicate large hailstones. Low/very low values that are near a velocity couplet show a Tornadic Debris Signature (TDS), and means that a tornado is lofting debris into the air.
Placefiles
Placefiles are a third-party modification of select radar software that can be added through a built-in feature called a “Placefile Manager.” Some websites offer live data feeds of weather stations, additional warnings that are not supported in the software, lightning detection, hurricane tracks, crowd-sourced weather reports, and severe weather outlooks. However, not many have created static placefiles that can be downloaded and used offline without the need for a constant connection to the internet. Due to this, I have created a variety of placefiles for you to use in your software to keep track of the small things—amateur radio repeaters, water body names, emergency centers, and many more.
Compatible Programs: GR2Analyst, GRLevel3, SupercellWX, WSV3
Placefiles
NOTICE – FOR ALL PLACEFILES WITH AN ASTERISK (*), YOU **MUST** DOWNLOAD THE “Placefile Grid” AND KEEP IT IN THE SAME DIRECTORY AS THE PLACEFILE TO ENSURE IT WORKS.
Placefile GridNortheast PA Amateur Radio Repeaters*
Northeast PA Emergency Centers*
More to come.
Mapping Software Files
There are a variety of mapping websites and software, such as Google Earth, qGIS, and ESRI. Since the placefiles (listed above) follow a specific format only available to certain radar software, I have created copies of placefiles for general mapping use.
Maps & Guides (Soon To Come)