A NEXRAD WSR-88D weather radar in Florida, the United States, operated by National Weather Service, NOAA.
- Station
- Tampa (KTBW)
- Site
- Ruskin
- Operator
- National Weather Service, NOAA
- Network
- NEXRAD WSR-88D
- Antenna
- 27.705° N, 82.402° W, 41 ft (13 m) above sea level
- Products
- Reflectivity, composite reflectivity, echo tops, vertically integrated liquid, velocity, correlation coefficient, differential reflectivity, specific differential phase (KDP), spectrum width
KTBW is the NEXRAD WSR-88D weather radar for Tampa, Florida. It stands at the NWS Tampa Bay Area forecast office in Ruskin, Hillsborough County, about 27 km south of Tampa and a similar distance east of St. Petersburg. The office grounds hold the operations building, the radar, an upper-air balloon shelter and a maintenance building; the radome protects a 28 foot antenna. The National Weather Service operates it. The office serves 15 counties of west central and southwest Florida, from Levy County to Lee County and east to Polk and Highlands counties.
Tampa's radar history runs from an APS2E set in 1951 through the WSR-1 and, in 1960, the WSR-57. The office and its radar moved from the airport to Ruskin in 1975. The present office was built in 1994 and 1995 and opened when the WSR-88D replaced the old radar; NCEI's archive of KTBW data begins in May 1995. The office became a Weather Forecast Office in 1999.
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.