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Flood Coverage and Weather Wars

M

mrpariot

Guest
During the holiday storms, Sacramento's KOVR-13 demolished its set/newsroom in West Sac, leaving only a CBS13 logo sign lit by two floodlamps on the wall behind the talent. The station also unveiled its new VIPIR Doppler Radar, with street-level mapping; satellite imagery of the terrain; precipitation estimates; rain/snow demarcation and storm tracking.

Meanwhile, market leader KCRA has introduced "LIVE Triple Doppler", with radar sites in Walnut Grove, Monterey and near Reno, NV. Updated graphics and satellite street level imagery are included. KCRA also has its version of NBC Weather Plus, on Comcast and on DTV.

Any thoughts on the storm coverage and on whether the weather wars really matter to the average viewer?
 
> During the holiday storms, Sacramento's KOVR-13 demolished
> its set/newsroom in West Sac, leaving only a CBS13 logo sign
> lit by two floodlamps on the wall behind the talent. The
> station also unveiled its new VIPIR Doppler Radar, with
> street-level mapping; satellite imagery of the terrain;
> precipitation estimates; rain/snow demarcation and storm
> tracking.
>
> Meanwhile, market leader KCRA has introduced "LIVE Triple
> Doppler", with radar sites in Walnut Grove, Monterey and
> near Reno, NV. Updated graphics and satellite street level
> imagery are included. KCRA also has its version of NBC
> Weather Plus, on Comcast and on DTV.
>
> Any thoughts on the storm coverage and on whether the
> weather wars really matter to the average viewer?
>
99% of the year, the local stations could skip the weather forecast completely and no one would care. I notice in New england, which actually gets weather, they do not make a big deal out of Doppler RADAR.

The "Triple Doppler" RADAR sites are actually the ones that NOAA already has in place that you can bring up on your desk top. Just not to the detail you can get on TV.

And, BTW, have you noticed that the street level presentations are a "smoothed" graphic and not that actual Doppler RADAR.

John
 
> 99% of the year, the local stations could skip the weather forecast
> completely and no one would care. I notice in New england, which actually
> gets weather, they do not make a big deal out of Doppler RADAR.

New England doesn't get weather like the Midwest and Southwest gets weather, and stations there do give viewers a healthy dose of weather equipment promotions. I have heard many people in Sacramento say they turn to KCRA during rainy weather because they have had the only live Doppler system in the market...until now.

In New England, WBZ just got a new Doppler system, and they've been promoting it quite extensively, and WTNH just last year got its new SkyMax Doppler system. New York isn't exactly New England, but they take the cake with their "Live Doppler 2,000,000."

> The "Triple Doppler" RADAR sites are actually the ones that
> NOAA already has in place that you can bring up on your desk
> top. Just not to the detail you can get on TV.

Right, they are the National Weather Service WSR-88D (NEXRAD) sites on Mt. Umunhum in the South Bay/Santa Cruz Mountains (nowhere near Monterey) and north of Reno. Both radars have crappy sight lines due to terrain and spit out Level II data, which isn't great, but is relatively "live."

> And, BTW, have you noticed that the street level
> presentations are a "smoothed" graphic and not that actual
> Doppler RADAR.

Of course it is an "actual Doppler radar" return. The computer the VIPIR software is running on will automatically smooth out the image so it's easier to visualize and so the station isn't broadcasting some pixellated mess of a return. I have never seen the benefit of street-level mapping "Oh, look, it's raining really hard on County Road 117 right now..." OK, thanks for that piece of live-saving info.

With its addition of VIPIR, KOVR now has the best radar in the market, and they need to promote it as such. Not only do they get Level II data from the NWS NEXRAD site southeast of Davis (which isn't much to write home about), but they're also getting live data from the KPIX radar on top of Mt. Vaca near Vacaville -- the best-located radar in northern California. It's the only radar that can "see" every place the ordinary NWS radars can't due to terrain. If you can't get KPIX and want a decent radar image, turn to KOVR.
 
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