NE Storm? Try Our New Snow/Mix/Ice/Rain Radar!

This is our new Hi-Res Snow/Ice/Mix/Rain radar from our Enhanced Radar system, showing the precip over southern New England this morning. You can access this radar live on on AccuWeather.com (PREMIUM | PRO).

Compared to the official observations from airports this morning (shown below), it looks pretty accurate, though of course we'll have to wait and see. This is the final piece of our Enhanced Radar (see my previous blog entry explaining the high-res upgrade) that we were waiting for -- up until this weekend it showed only rain. Now we are estimating areas of Mixed (rain & snow) as well as Ice (sleet or freezing rain) in addition to rain & snow, all on top of high-resolution radar.

The delineation of precip type won't always be 100% accurate, because NEXRAD radars can't actually detect precipitation type -- we are estimating based on a complex algorithm that looks at short-range predictions of conditions in the lower atmosphere, and what's happening at the airports.

Here in State College, Pennsylvania, home of AccuWeather HQ [Google Map], we have an inch or two of some fluffy snow this morning.