Hurricane Maria destroyed Puerto Rico’s radar, a critical tool for forecasting
Hurricane Maria and its 100-plus-mph winds demolished the main weather radar that forecasters use to monitor storms in Puerto Rico. As of yet, there is no known time frame for replacing the radar while more than two months of hurricane season remain.
The radar, located in the mountains of south central Puerto Rico — about 20 miles from San Juan, scanned the sky in all directions and signaled to forecasters exactly where rain was located, how heavy it was and where it was headed. It could also detect damaging winds. But just before 6 a.m. Sept. 20, it abruptly stopped operating just as the Category 4 behemoth and its violent winds slammed into the island.
Photos posted to Twitter by the National Weather Service office in San Juan show all that remains of the radar is the tower to which it was connected. The dome, which housed the radar scanner, is gone — completely severed from the mount.....MORE
