A new weather radar will be installed atop Lee County’s Public Safety Office in Fort Myers to address low-level weather coverage gaps in Lee and several neighboring counties that don’t have adequate coverage.
Maps from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) website show the state of Florida having strong mid and upper-level weather coverage above 6,000 and 10,000 feet, respectively.
However, the maps also demonstrate a lack of low-level (below 6,000 feet) coverage in Lee and neighboring counties — coverage that is critical in detecting tornado signatures, wind gust fronts and flash floods.
It’s why Lee County is partnering with Climavision, a Kentucky-based weather technology company, to install the radar and close coverage gaps.
“That’s not the fault of a meteorologist, that’s the lack of an observation,” Tara Goode, Climavision’s Vice President of Radar Operations & Strategic Partnerships, said. “The lower we can look closer to the ground, the more information we can have when making impactful warning decisions.”
Climavision said it has put 30 radars in 15 different states, with the one in Lee County being the first in Florida. The company’s goal is to provide full weather surveillance coverage across the entire country.
The reason for the coverage gaps is the curvature of the Earth. As radar beams shoot in a straight line from their static locations, less data is received at farther distances. The nearest Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) stations to Fort Myers are in Tampa and Miami.
“This is the kind of the type of technology you want to have in urban centers,” Abes said. “With our population rising and approaching a million people, it’s important that we have up-to-date technology that helps the forecasters provide accurate and effective events.”
The radar is what’s called an X-band radar, and is equipped with an 8-foot antenna inside a 12-foot dish, giving it an optimal range of 60 miles in every direction.
The radar's specifications allow experts to see weather occurrences in four dimensions, meaning that experts can see the size, shape and speed of rainfall in addition to other artifacts.
Abes said that it’s possible residents in the radar’s range will begin receiving more severe thunderstorm and tornado warning alerts than usual due to the new radar’s low-level coverage capabilities.
“There’s certain things that they (radars) just can’t see from Tampa,” Abes said.
The Iona tornado that destroyed more than 100 mobile homes in 2022 is a prime example of that.
As part of Lee County’s partnership with Climavision, the company will share its data while also covering utility expenses and all structural enhancements for the building where the radar will be installed. This comes at no cost to taxpayers.
The radar’s data will not be made available to the public. Instead, it will be shared with the National Weather Service and local safety partners to issue accurate and timely weather alerts.
Climavision’s business model is to sell weather data, meaning that other public and private sector organizations can receive access to the data in ways similar to a subscription.
“While it might not be available immediately on a consumer-facing app, [residents] will be able to get the benefits of better warnings and better lead time when time is of the essence,” Goode said.
County officials are encouraging residents to turn on emergency alerts on their mobile devices so that they don’t miss important weather warnings in the future.
“I think we’ll see and understand just how impactful this radar is because they’ll now have really good quality data here in Southwest Florida,” Abes said.
The radar will be lifted by helicopter, but won’t be operational until 30 to 45 days while Climavision completes data quality checks.
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