609
NOUS41 KWBC 031540
PNSWSH

Service Change Notice 24-71
National Weather Service Headquarters Silver Spring MD
1140 AM EDT Wed July 03 2024

To: Subscribers:
 -NOAA Weather Wire Service
 -Emergency Managers Weather Information Network
 -NOAAPort
 Other NWS Partners, Users and Employees

From: Stephen Bieda III, Ph.D.,
 Chief, Severe, Fire, Public and Winter Weather Services
Branch

Subject: Upgrade to RIDGE II (radar.weather.gov) Enhanced and
 Standard (Low Bandwidth) Images Effective: July 2,2024.

On July 2nd, 2024, NCEP Central Operations upgraded the Radar
Integrated Display with Geospatial Elements (RIDGE) application
to improve the user experience by giving them more control and
also improving usability by adding more plain language for radar
locations and radar product names. In addition to several
functional improvements, additional bug fixes were made as well.
The full list of changes can be seen below. The changes will
proceed after expiration in the event of a Critical Weather Day
(CWD) or an Enhanced Caution Event (ECE).

The RIDGE II application has been producing both low bandwidth
images (deemed Local Standard Radar) and the Geographic
Information System (GIS)-based application that displays NWS
radar data on https://radar.weather.gov (known as Enhanced
Radar) since its operational replacement of RIDGE Version I in
December of 2020.

Changes to the Enhanced Radar include, 1) Plain language titles
for radar products and radar location names (e.g. Super
Resolution Base Reflectivity instead of SR_BREF or Birmingham,
AL instead of KBMX), 2) Adding the ability to search enhanced
radar by station ID, 3) Adding current/high/low temperature
values and a weather icon to the hourly forecast when selecting
a location on the radar.weather.gov map, 4) Removal of non-US
radars, 5) Allow users to have a direct URL to a radar site
(e.g. /station/KEAX or /region/alaska or /location?lat=39&lon=-
93)

New functionality and improvements to Standard Radar include, 1)
Allow users to access the high-resolution CONUS image, 2)
Introduce the velocity product for users to select within the
standard radar, 3) Add Snow Squall Warnings to standard radar
image legend.

Technical updates and bug fixes include, 1) Update the mapping
library, 2) Update the configuration, 3) Correct a few minor
wording and spelling errors, 4) Add support for KHDC, 5) Display
the location name when it is set by a hazard, 6) Improve the
ability to select the nearest local radar by clicking on the
map, 7) Resolve broken hazard geometry across the 180th
meridian, 8) Resolve the bug that causes the map
legend/loop/toggle to disappear, 9) Update the pan to the NW for
the KDAX standard radar

For complete information about the RIDGE II radar page on
radar.weather.gov, including the associated available data
products and services, please view Service Change Notice (SCN)
20-85:

https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/pdf2/scn20-
85ridge2_aab.pdf

A general Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page for the
https://radar.weather.gov GIS-based page can be found here:

https://www.weather.gov/radarfaq

For comments or questions regarding the information in this
notice, please contact:

Aaron Treadway
NWS Severe Weather Services Program Manager (acting)
NOAA/National Weather Service Headquarters
Silver Spring, MD
nws.radarfeedback@noaa.gov

For issues regarding outages and the operational support of the
RIDGE II application, please contact nco.ops@noaa.gov.

National Service Change Notices are online at:
https://www.weather.gov/notification/