WeatherTAP Blog

Here are the quick facts:

RadarLab HD requires the latest version of Java. Download it here.

RadarLab HD requires a minimum screen resolution of 1024x768. If you have anything smaller, part of the control panel will be cut off. There is no way around this.

The "classic" RadarLab tool has not been discontinued. It is still available on the site.

RadarLab HD is available to WeatherTAP subscribers at no extra cost. We have rolled this feature into the basic service and we have no plans to charge anything additional for it. We may, in the future, offer an enhanced lightning add-on for HD that will have an extra cost however.

RadarLab HD has been shown to run on Windows, Linux, and at least one Mac platform.

RadarLab HD currently only does base reflectivity. In the future we may expand it to offer other types of radar information. HD uses level-ii data from the 134 nexrad sites which are generating it. Level-II includes only reflectivity, velocity, and spectrum width.

Data is available via RadarLab HD faster than classic RadarLab. This is because we ingest live data from the radar as it is scanning through the VCP. We do not have to wait for the RPG section to process the data.

Because of HD's unique, ground-breaking architecture, you can actually create a desktop icon and load RadarLab HD up as a stand-alone utility without even launching your browser. You will be occasionally prompted for this.

We hope you enjoy this new addition and find it useful.

RadarLab HD now portrays storm tracks in different colors depending on whether there is TVS or MESO indicator. Cells containing possibility of hail (POH > 0) are also coded.

In addition, you can now hover the mouse over a centroid to view detailed information about the cell.

This feature appears in Revision 3 of the RadarLab HD client. To see what revision you have, click the RadarLab HD icon in the upper righthand corner of the HD window. If you don't have revision 3 or greater, you may need to clear your Java cache and reload from the website.

To clear your cache, go to Windows control panel and open the Java CP. The General tab contains a button labeled "Delete files". Press that button and your cache will be cleared. Any desktop shortcuts to RadarLab HD will be removed in the process.

RadarLab HD is launched through a program called Java Web Start. Java Web Start is supposed to check when a new version of RadarLab HD is present and then download it to your computer. We have found that this does not always work.

You can now connect a GPS device to your computer and plot your location in RadarLab HD. You can display your current location using one of four different symbols and display the GPS track of where you have been. You can also change the color of GPS overlay to any color you wish.

There are a few new things that have been added to RadarLab HD in Version 1.0 Revision 15. All the changes in this release can be found in here.

There are some new additions and bug fixes with RadarLab HD in Version 1.0 Revision 16. All the changes in this release can be found in here.

There is one new addition and some enhancements with RadarLab HD Version 1.0 Revision 17. All the changes in this release can be found in here.

The only change with Revision 18 affects the Alarm Settings. A bug was found in the Alarming code that would cause the alarm not to sound when it should have. This occurred when alarming on a Watch or Warning if the user was zoomed in. This has now been corrected.

Flight plan filing is now available on the weatherTAP Aviation page. When you fill out your flight information and then press the Submit Request button, your flight plan will be filed through DTC DUAT. You can get to the flight plan filing page by clicking on the "File Flight Plan" menu option at the top of the Aviation page or go directly to the page by clicking here.

We have created some KML weather related files that you can download and view in Google Earth or any other application that supports KML. Currently we have Level II Radar data and Warning files to download. You can read more about this and download the KML files by going here.

Three key changes have been made in Revision 20 of RadarLab HD. The description of these changes can be found in here.

A couple new features and a few changes have been made with Revision 22 of RadarLab HD. Click here to read more.

A few changes have been made with Revision 23 of RadarLab HD. Click here to read more.

We have been getting a lot of comments about the new Super Resolution radar that most radar sites are now sending out. Some changes might be made to these images in RadarLab HD. Please tell us what you think.