THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, August 24, 1994             TAG: 9408240495
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: WAKEFIELD                          LENGTH: Short :   47 lines

NEW RADAR WEATHER SYSTEM TURNED ON IN WAKEFIELD THE $1.2 MILLION SETUP IS PART OF AN UPGRADE GOING ON ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

Cloudy or clear.

Flash floods or sunny skies.

Weather or not, Hampton Roads' new high-tech eyes are watching.

The National Weather Service has turned on its new, $1.2 million radar warning system for Hampton Roads, part of a nationwide upgrade designed to bring the country out of the meteorological stone age.

To meteorologists, that means Hampton Roads tornadoes are easier to spot. Storms are easier to track. Rainfall, wind speed, cloud cover - even hurricane strength - are easier to estimate.

The WSR-88-D Nexrad radar system won't become Hampton Roads' official storm-warning center for six months. But it was turned on last month for a lengthy shakedown, and is feeding its super-sensitive data to the National Weather Service station at Norfolk International Airport 24 hours a day, from the Wakefield facility northwest of Suffolk.

``A lot of other radar we have is basically World War II technology - vacuum tubes,'' said Tony Siebers, meteorologist in charge of the Wakefield station. ``This new radar sees precipitation and severe weather in such greater detail, there's no comparison.''

Older weather radar systems can see storms and track them by making a series of readings, Siebers said. The new radar not only senses storm movement, it can detect movement within storms to identify tornadoes and funnel clouds.

The system's computer can calculate precipitation, making it easier to predict flash floods or snowstorms, Siebers said.

The system will cover most of Southeastern Virginia, with a range between 124 and 248 nautical miles, depending on what it's looking for.

``I'm not saying we're going to catch every little storm,'' said Siebers, who moved to Wakefield last week from a weather center in Milwaukee. ``But this is a quantum leap in our capabilities.''

The Wakefield center is one of three planned for Virginia, and part of a network of about 115 nationwide. It will be staffed with 16 people when it formally takes over weather duties in February. by CNB