RADAR VISION WEATHERMEN GO HIGH-TECH.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

If you've wondered where TV weathermen get their information about storms moving into your neighborhood, one way is to look north on Tampa Avenue to the Santa Susanna Mountains at the giant golf ball at the top.

That's the ``Live Doppler 7,000+,'' the $1 million state-of-the-art radar tower that KABC (Channel 7) built to give its viewers real-time weather reports.

``When you look at our radar and it says it's raining someplace in the area, it really is,'' says Cherly Fair, vice president and news director at KABC-TV. ``It's instantaneous.''

All local news channels like to brag about their forecasting technologies, whether they have the only radar tower in Los Angeles or not.

KCBS (Channel 2) and its sister station KCAL (Channel 9) rely on Doppler radar as do most TV stations. Doppler is a radar system that helps weather forecasters fast-track weather.

``It's really a terrific tool,'' KCBS morning weatherman John Elliott said, adding ``there's no more guesswork. You just fire it up and zoom it in and you've got it.''

The Doppler was originally designed to give people advanced warning of tornadoes. Of course, here it's mostly used to track storm fronts.

The Live Pinpoint Doppler of KNBC (Channel 4) combines its information from five locations in Southern California - Vandenberg, Oxnard, Ojai, San Diego and LAX - to give weatherman Fritz Coleman a good handle on the storms soon to be passing through the area.

Right down to the street level.

``It's just phenomenal how we can pinpoint the serious cells of weather particularly in circumstances like we have right now,'' Coleman says. ``We can zero in on burn areas and know when they're going to get something and how much they're going to get. It gives not only us but the fire officials and the residents in those areas a slightly better handle on what their circumstances are going to be.''

The technology's immediacy comes in handy especially in severe weather conditions.

``Because ours truly is real-time, you can forecast where a storm is going to go and what town it's going to hit at what time,'' Fair says. ``I mean, over the weekend I literally watched our weather forecast and planned when I was going to walk my dog because I could see where the rain was and how fast it was going to get me.''

Because of the rains, area weathermen have been busy. KCBS' Elliott started a half-hour early on Monday because of the tornado warnings in Ventura.

``People said to me, We sure do appreciate that you're staying on this morning.''

Valerie Kuklenski contributed to this story.

Sandra Barrera, [phone]

sandra.barrera(at)dailynews.com

HOW IT WORKS

--Doppler radar can measure both precipitation and wind. It works by emitting a short pulse of energy, and if the pulse strikes an object (raindrop, snowflake, bug, bird, etc.), a small portion of that energy is directed back toward the radar. This reflected signal is then analyzed by computers based on the time it took to travel to the object and back, and the frequency shift of the pulse. The National Weather Service's Doppler radars can detect most precipitation within about 90 miles of the radar, and intense rain or snow within about 155 miles. However, light rain, light snow, or drizzle from shallow cloud weather systems are not necessarily detected.

- SOURCE: KCBS

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KCBS weatherman John Elliot uses state-of-the-art technology to track weather systems through the Southland.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

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HOW IT WORKS (see text)