If things go as planned, a new weather radar system stationed at the Durango-La Plata County Airport will be up and running by the end of August.
Construction crews this week began building the tower, atop which a radar dome will sit. La Plata County, which formally holds the contract for the construction of the system, anticipates the dome will be constructed next week, according to the county’s Strategic Management Director Megan Graham.
Contractors broke ground in February on the project.
A grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs is covering $1.7 million of the project and the county is pitching in $800,000 from the capital improvement fund.
The new system will vastly improve the quality of weather forecasts in the region.
The closest similar radar system, located in Grand Junction, cannot see incoming weather in the Four Corners because of the curvature of the earth. Radar shoots in a straight line, meaning that by the time the beam hits Durango, it can only see weather at or above about 28,000 feet. Most snowstorms come in below that elevation.
More accurate radar information will improve weather forecasts throughout the region and will enhance operations at the airport, said Director of Aviation Tony Vicari.
“It'll help with in-flight safety, severe weather forecasting, lightning detection and specifically, in some of our winter snow removal efforts, (we will be) able to better time precipitation waves and understand opportunities when we're out on the airfield battling Mother Nature,” he said.
The system will have a range of 125 to 155 miles.
In addition to in-house use at the airport and the National Weather Service, the radar’s data will be available to the public through an app the county is developing.
“We'll have our own little weather channel, functionally,” Graham said.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
