Langley Hill weather radar: KLGX

A NEXRAD WSR-88D weather radar in Washington, the United States, operated by National Weather Service, NOAA.

Station
Langley Hill (KLGX)
Operator
National Weather Service, NOAA
Network
NEXRAD WSR-88D
Antenna
47.117° N, 124.107° W, 252 ft (77 m) above sea level
Products
Reflectivity, composite reflectivity, echo tops, vertically integrated liquid, velocity, correlation coefficient, differential reflectivity, specific differential phase (KDP), spectrum width

KLGX is the NEXRAD WSR-88D weather radar on Langley Hill, about 3 miles east of Copalis Beach in Grays Harbor County on the Washington coast. The National Weather Service runs it from the Seattle/Tacoma forecast office, which calls it the coastal radar. The NWS Radar Operations Center lists the station as Langley Hill (NW Washington), and NCEI records the name Langley Hill NW Washington with its record beginning in August 2011.

The radar was added to the network in 2011 to fill a gap on the Pacific coast. A July 2011 newsletter from the NWS Seattle Center Weather Service Unit reported the tower, radome and antenna in place by the end of May and the radar expected to be operational by 30 September 2011 once dual polarisation had been installed and tested. It also said KLGX would be the first NEXRAD to test a scanning strategy with a lower scan angle of 0.2 degrees, for a better view over the offshore waters. The station was dedicated on 21 September 2012 after Senator Maria Cantwell and Congressman Norm Dicks secured $9 million in federal funding. Wikipedia describes the dome on a 130 foot steel tower on a 249 foot hill between Copalis Beach and Copalis Crossing, off State Route 109.

Ocean Shores is about 16 km to the south-west of the antenna, Hoquiam about 22 km and Aberdeen about 27 km to the south-east, and Westport about 25 km to the south. Olympia is about 92 km to the east.

KLGX scans as low as 0.2 degrees above the horizon, a scan angle the NWS introduced at this station for a better view of the offshore waters. Wikipedia notes that the low scan sometimes produces image artefacts from sea clutter. Radar shows rain, snow and hail, not cloud, and nothing below its lowest beam; far from the antenna the beam passes high above the ground.

Nearby

  • Aberdeen 17 mi southeast
  • Hoquiam 14 mi southeast
  • Ocean Shores 10 mi south
  • Westport 16 mi south
  • Montesano 26 mi east
  • Olympia 57 mi east
  • Tacoma 79 mi east
  • Seattle 90 mi northeast

Nearby radars

  • Seattle (KATX) 106 mi northeast
  • Portland (KRTX) 111 mi southeast
  • Pendleton (KPDT) 269 mi east

Washington radars · United States · Find your radar

Sources: NWS WSR-88D radar list (158 sites), Office of the Chief Information Officer, NWS Radar Operations Center, site ID database, network sites, NWS API, radar station KLGX, NCEI Historical Observing Metadata Repository, NEXRAD station KLGX, NWS Seattle/Tacoma, WA forecast office, NWS Seattle CWSU newsletter, Weather Watch, July 2011 (PDF), Senator Maria Cantwell, Cantwell, Dicks at radar dedication (21 September 2012), Wikipedia, Langley Hill Doppler radar, Wikipedia, NEXRAD (list of sites).

Radar data: NOAA National Weather Service (NEXRAD). Place names: GeoNames, CC BY 4.0.