During clear nights like last night, the ground and air near the surface will cool off creating a temperature inversion. When the inversion is strong, it will play havoc with EM waves from the NWS 88d RADAR. The beam will be refracted back toward the ground and start bouncing off objects like semi trucks. The featured image shows the result of this process with higher reflectivity values aligning with the interstate and highways. If the traffic motion is radial from the radar, you will also be able to see the traffic speeds in the doppler velocity data!

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Tags:   inversion   nexrad