Shannon Weather Radar Offline 14th-30th July

Squeaksoutloud · 13-07-2010 5:10pm #1

Looks like the Shannon Radar is down for maintenace for the rest of the month and possibly into August.

http://www.met.ie/news/display.asp?ID=76

Over the latter weeks of July and the first weeks of August major upgrade works will take place on the Rainfall Radar at Shannon Airport. Unfortunately, during this time the Rainfall Radar will have to be switched off frequently, leading to periods of outage for this service.

Work will start on July 14th and is scheduled be complete by August 9th. Lengthy outages can be expected during this time. In particular, total outage is scheduled from the 14th to 30th of July.

The Shannon Rainfall Radar was installed in 1996. The upgrade works will ensure that the Radar can continue in service for another 10 years, and also improve the Radar performance. In recent times, there has been evidence that the Shannon Rainfall Radar’s sensitivity has been diminishing, and it has not been providing comprehensive detection of rain and showers within its designated area of coverage. The upgrade will restore the radar to a higher operational standard than when it was first installed.

While the interruptions to service over the next few weeks are unwelcome, they are necessary. The end result will be a state-of-the-art Rainfall Radar with a projected lifespan of a least a decade.

Met Éireann would like to apologise for this interruption in service and we thank you for your patience.

Su Campu · 13-07-2010 5:11pm

Ah FFS!!! :mad::mad::mad:

owenc · 13-07-2010 5:19pm

Sure its out the whole time anyway.

WolfeIRE · 13-07-2010 5:21pm

the rope holding the gear together must have snapped. Or maybe it's part of the slow closedown of Shannon Airport.

Deep Easterly · 13-07-2010 5:25pm

Wasn't it down for a long period last year as well for maintenance? Still, if it solves the problem then cool. It has proved itself useless for the lowlands of north central Galway over the last year. Returns just dissappear when they move over, only to reappear once again once they reach the a certain line just over the Rocommon border. I think the highground over north Clare may be weakening the signal for this part of the world.

Min · 13-07-2010 5:28pm

The important bit is "major upgrade works will take place on the Rainfall Radar at Shannon Airport"

Lets hope it is a major improvement.

CJWRC94 · 13-07-2010 7:33pm

The radar seems to be very poor for this area, any reason for this , are we just out of range.

Oscar Bravo · 13-07-2010 9:31pm

Maintenence badly wanted!!

thetonynator · 13-07-2010 10:13pm

I'd Hate not to be in range of the dublin one . . .:D

Sponge Bob · 14-07-2010 1:28am

FFS

the forecasts are meaningless absent radar. Put the spares up in Dooncarton and Schull you useless gobsh1tes willye. I live in the west and need live or neartime radar....you know...... like the Icelandic one.

pauldry · 14-07-2010 10:50am

Dont know why everyone is so angry. It will lead to improvements from August onwards. How do I delete that thread I errantly started

Parakeets · 14-07-2010 7:38pm

pauldry wrote: »

Dont know why everyone is so angry. It will lead to improvements from August onwards. How do I delete that thread I errantly started

I agree, I think random rants are mistaking upgrades for a maintenance shutdown. This upgrade practically gives a new radar for a significant fraction of the cost of a new one. Euro for Euro its money well spent and will improve the coverage of the radar considerably.

Discodog · 14-07-2010 7:49pm

The reason that people are angry & ranting is we were told the same story during the recent "upgrade". I think the wording was virtually identical ( but I can't find it).

Parakeets · 14-07-2010 8:10pm

Discodog wrote: »

The reason that people are angry & ranting is we were told the same story during the recent "upgrade". I think the wording was virtually identical ( but I can't find it).

There is no recent upgrade, but a contract was issued recently to carry out this upgrade, which may be causing the confusion. Radars in general only have one serious upgrade in their lifetime and are then replaced. This time has come for the Shannon radar and things should be improved from this point onwards.

Deep Easterly · 14-07-2010 8:16pm

Parakeets wrote: »

There is no recent upgrade,

yes, there was. Can't remember at what point but the radar was down for weeks as a result. The 'upgrade', if anything, made things worse!

Discodog · 14-07-2010 8:19pm

Thanks I thought it was my imagination. Is there anyway of digging out the old thread together with the ME announcement ?.

Deep Easterly · 14-07-2010 8:30pm

Discodog wrote: »

Thanks I thought it was my imagination. Is there anyway of digging out the old thread together with the ME announcement ?.

Not really sure, but if you ask one of the mods they might be able to root it out. There is almost an Orwellian thing going on here. "there is no war with Eurasia; we were never at war with Eurasia".

Discodog · 14-07-2010 8:59pm

We are entitled to rant because ME are a bloody disgrace. I need accurate forecasts for my business. Why can I get accurate, detailed & free forecasts from the BBC, Sky & the wonderful yr.no yet I have to put up with a ME forecaster using a map & symbols from the 1970's - I am waiting for the magnetic symbols to reappear ? !.

Unlike ME all the above provide a predictive rainfall element to their forecasting & that is want we all want to know. Will it rain, when will it rain & how much rain will their be ?.

ME should be given a choice to either provide decent detailed forecasts or to be disbanded so that we can spend the money on a proper weather service. The BBC, Sky & yr.no deserve praise for providing forecasts for us. Maybe we could pay them instead ?.

WolfeIRE · 15-07-2010 10:47am

radar is down now

this may help in meantime
http://www.sat24.com/gb

or this
http://www.yr.no/satellitt/europa_dag_natt.html

Discodog · 17-07-2010 4:40pm

The remaining Dublin radar is viewing phantom rain - it's still dry here !

km79 · 17-07-2010 5:15pm

same here!

Su Campu · 17-07-2010 5:34pm

Discodog wrote: »

.

Unlike ME all the above provide a predictive rainfall element to their forecasting & that is want we all want to know. Will it rain, when will it rain & how much rain will their be ?.

What do you mean predictive rainfall element? ME give anticipated quantities, timing, and intensities in their text forecasts. They have a 3-hr graphical rainfall forecast, updated every hour. What more do you want?

And yr.no is a computer generated forecast, like all the others, and therefore will be wrong more than a human forecast.

But anyway, this thread is about their radar, not their forecasts.

Takeshi_Kovacs · 17-07-2010 6:03pm

There is only 2 radar stations in Ireland the MET uses? Or is there more in N.Ireland?

Oscar Bravo · 17-07-2010 6:06pm

"The remaining Dublin radar is viewing phantom rain - it's still dry here !" likewise!

Deep Easterly · 17-07-2010 6:26pm

Takeshi_Kovacs wrote: »

There is only 2 radar stations in Ireland the MET uses? Or is there more in N.Ireland?

There is one in the Belfast area I think but for some reason met eireann don't use it, at least publically. Pity really as there would be a nice, solid coverage across the country if all three radars were used on the met site.

BEASTERLY · 17-07-2010 6:51pm

Deep Easterly wrote: »

There is one in the Belfast area I think but for some reason met eireann don't use it, at least publically. Pity really as there would be a nice, solid coverage across the country if all three radars were used on the met site.

Well we get vey poor coverage even when shannon and dublin are both online , rain that does show up , shows rain thats not there , shows very rain as verly light rain , the list is endless! Maybe a radar in waterford airport might help?

Deep Easterly · 17-07-2010 9:06pm

BEASTERLY wrote: »

Well we get vey poor coverage even when shannon and dublin are both online , rain that does show up , shows rain thats not there , shows very rain as verly light rain , the list is endless! Maybe a radar in waterford airport might help?

The more the merrier defo! I still think the SE is better covered than the NW though when just Shannon and Dublin are used. A thunderstorm over the SE in June 2009 showed quite well on the radar:

I'd say if the the same shower with the same intenisty has occured over the NW region all we would get is blues with yellow for pink and pink for red!

Jpmarn · 17-07-2010 10:45pm

I do miss the Shannon radar tonight. It normally shows up how much more rain is to come especially from the west.

thetonynator · 17-07-2010 10:57pm

Has over 32 mmph ever been recorded on the irish radars???

Deep Easterly · 17-07-2010 11:20pm

thetonynator wrote: »

Has over 32 mmph ever been recorded on the irish radars???

Quite possible but I have yet to see it. On June 21st 2008, I recorded a 50 min fall of 47 mm during an embedded thunderstorm. I remember the met radar at the time showed a yellow over me, didn't even make it to the pale pink category! :cool:

Discodog · 18-07-2010 2:42pm

Su Campu wrote: »

What do you mean predictive rainfall element? ME give anticipated quantities, timing, and intensities in their text forecasts. They have a 3-hr graphical rainfall forecast, updated every hour. What more do you want?

And yr.no is a computer generated forecast, like all the others, and therefore will be wrong more than a human forecast.

But anyway, this thread is about their radar, not their forecasts.

All I want is a simple, easy predictive sequence like on the BBC & Sky. The only time that ME show this is during the farming forecast when it is run so fast that you have to use Sky+ to slow it down. Sky's regional (on the red button forecast) is way better than ME.

What is the point of a human forecast when they are so vague ?. ME have a vested interest in not giving detailed forecasts as they charge for more detail. The Norwegians believe that all weather data should be free & I agree with them.

The Sky forecast did show, what appeared to be, a radar image covering SW Ireland.

Can someone tell me ?

http://www.met.ie/forecasts/3hour.asp

Is this showing the amount of rain expected in the next 3 hours or the amount that fell in the past three hours ?. Does anyone know how often it is updated ? Thanks

Shannon Weather Radar Offline 14th-30th July

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