THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 6, 1995 TAG: 9503060028
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CAPE HATTERAS LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
For 40 years the World War II National Weather Service radar at Cape Hatteras has provided early hurricane warning for Outer Banks residents.
But last Friday the old WSR-57 began displaying wildly irregular blips and other shocking electrical symptoms that technicians decided were clearly a death rattle.
Weather Service officials said Sunday they doubt that the Hatteras radar will ever run again.
``The radar is out of service for maintenance - we don't know if or when it will be back up,'' was the official word from Wallace H. Demaurice, 58, veteran chief the Cape Hatteras weather station at Buxton.
For the past year, the station has been stripped of personnel and equipment as two new weather radars went on line at Newport, near Morehead City, N.C., and at Wakefield, 30-miles west of Norfolk.
Both of the new weather stations are equipped with the latest WSR-88-D Doppler radars that provide far more precise storm information for the Atlantic coastal area than what used to be provided by the old WSR-57 radar on Hatteras Island.
``We originally planned to decommission the Cape Hatteras radar in December of this year,'' said Tom Kriehn, meteorologist-in-charge of the station near Morehead City.
``But for the last couple of weeks we've had electronic technicians working on the WSR-57 at Buxton and we're not sure whether we should try to repair it. There are even indications that the tower that supports the radar antenna may have safety problems,'' Kriehn said.
Demaurice had told jittery Outer Banks residents he hoped to keep the old radar running ``through this coming hurricane season, at least.'' Now, the Outer Banks will have to rely on the modern weather stations this summer.
KEYWORDS: WEATHER NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE by CNB