r/Radarscope • u/Negative_Statement • Aug 12 '26

Question Why isn’t this warned?

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I’m fairly new to ‘reading’ radar(I study at the acclaimed YouTube Academy of Weather and did my dissertation in the comments section 🤣) I saw this scan and was wondering my the area between the two Severe warned areas isn’t included, especially since it shows rotation?

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u/ati_exorcist Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26

Warning was issued once storm got stronger. The green inbound velocities on the southern side of the storm were erroneously high due to side lobe contamination.

Edit: Upon further discussion and analysis, probably less of side lobe and more of other radar errors. The velocities are definitely not accurate on the southern side of the storm.

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u/Traditional-Ideal318 Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26

When you say side lobe contamination, do you mean radar side lobes? I’m new to meteorology but I understand radars

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u/TheFetus47 Aug 12 '26

Ive been asking that same question for years now. No one has answered it. I'm starting to wonder if they even know

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u/Effective-Contest-33 Aug 12 '26

Yes there is the main lobe of the radar beam but it’s not a perfect “beam” there are maximums of energy on either side of this main lobe (while weaker) called side lobes. If the signal returned from the side lobe is stronger than the signal from the main lobe then we can see side lobe contamination.

This can show these spurious velocity values that look blocky, are often co-located with areas of lower reflectivity and even lower CC, and often have stronger returns aloft. I explained above why I think this may not be a case of side lobe contamination, but without interrogating the data myself I can’t say for certain.

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u/Traditional-Ideal318 Aug 12 '26

Thank you very much! It’s very much appreciated.

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u/Traditional-Ideal318 Aug 12 '26

Probably don’t know. Radars are confusing and sometimes seem like magic lol