NEXRAD opponents argue efficiency
By Jesse Phelps

As the battle for Sulphur Mountain heats up once again, opponents are crying foul. In the past, much of the rhetoric surrounding the debate centered on potential health risks from the microwave beam sporadically shot out of the tower, but now, opponents say the problem isn't what the tower does but what it doesn't do.

A document provided to the Ojai Valley News by the Ventura County Citizens Against Radar Emissions states, "Since the Sulphur Mountain NEXRAD began operating and its data (became) incorporated into forecasts by meteorologists in the Los Angeles Weather Forecasting Office, it has failed to warn of flash floods nearly 50 percent of the time. Of 12 flood events in the El Niño year of 1998, either no or insufficient warning time was given for five events."

Milton Kramer is a consultant to VCCARE, most famous locally as the man who ran the campaign against the infamous Weldon Canyon Dump. Kramer says the main problem with the tower is its elevation.

"The preliminary NEXRAD site survey for the Los Angeles area stated that the Suphur Mountain Radar, in order to avoid anomalous propogations, needed to be placed at over 2,000 feet," said Kramer. "As a result, the Sulphur Mountain NEXRAD was placed at 2,750 feet. The height of the inversion, where warmer air meets cooler air in the atmosphere, is 2,000 feet, according to the site survey." Kramer explained that the inversion actually varies considerably, going as low as 100 feet in winter, and that means the tower misses lower elevation events.

"Moreover, and more importantly," said Kramer, "when there is inclement weather, there is no inversion." As common sense dictates that floods are most likely in "inclement weather," the tower would seem rather useless. But the problems, according to Kramer and data provided by VCCARE, don't end there.
The Sulphur Mountain NEXRAD is one of many in a system of interlocking towers throughout the Southern California area. Partially because of the Sulphur Mountain tower's inaccuracy and partially because the coverage of a similar tower in the Santa Ana Mountains is limited, Kramer said major problems exist in coverage. As shown on the accompanying graph, areas where there should be overlap of signals are bare of beams, creating serious problems for what Kramer describes as densely populated areas of West Los Angeles.

"There's a huge gap to the south-southwest at lower elevations," he said. "Our position is that the storms are moving through that area and that accounts for why there have been so many flash floods without advanced warning. The rain coming from the south-southwest moves overland through those gaps, so it's never detected."

Communities directly affected include Malibu, Santa Monica, El Segundo, Hermosa, Torrance and Brentwood.
Kramer says VCCARE "retained a man, a Ph.D. in meterorology, who at the time was also the head of the geospacial center in Monterey. He was a 20-year radar consultat to NASA. He did a report. His report stated that you didn't need the Sulphur Mountain radar, period."

Tim McClung of the National Weather Service's local office in Oxnard was unavailable for comment. Meanwhile, Kramer said the tower is not an evil in and of itself and he's not sure why the National Weather Service is so opposed to moving it, if it isn't working where it is.

"We would agree that the Doppler radar is the most effective system they've had," said Kramer, who served many years in the military and has a background with Doppler technology. "I understand some of what it does. That's what makes it so puzzling that there should be such a failure rate with that kind of technology being used."

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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