West Coast Rain Radar

The Mt Gambier radar is located at the Meteorological Office, 9 km north of the city of Mt Gambier. The elevation of the radar antenna is 84 metres above sea level. Extensive pine forests lie to the near north and west of the Meteorological Office. The radar has good coverage in most directions up to a range of about 200km. It should provide useful weather information as far north as the eastern fringes of the Little Desert National Park, west to Cape Jaffa and east to Warrnambool. False echoes can occasionally be observed very close to the radar, especially in stable conditions. These anomalous propagations are easily identified and are displayed as a mass of low intensity echoes, constantly changing shape with no apparent direction in movement from one radar scan to the next. They can normally be distinguished from "real" echoes which are larger, exhibit more uniform movement and change character more steadily. Echoes within approximately five kilometres of the radar and overhead can be poorly resolved as the scanning elevation is too low. Apart from these features, the radar performs well and gives a reasonably accurate representation of rainfall intensity. <a