After Hurricane Ian (09/29/2022 through 10/01/2022), NCEI discovered that level 3 radar products for several stations were missing from archive holdings. These data were also inaccessible from other distribution sources. NCEI brought this issue to staff at the National Weather Service - Radar Operations Center (NWS/ROC), who recovered the data by running a ‘playback code’ on level 2 data to regenerate the level 3.
The reprocessed level-3 data has been restored to the archive; however, the 'playback code' could not recover the radar instrument control variables set by the Weather Forecast Offices. This means that the reprocessed data may not be exactly the same as the original level 3 products, especially for precipitation. In critical use cases, the Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) product might be a better source for some precipitation products.
The NCEI archive has integrated reprocessed level 3 data available from the following stations for 09/29/2022 at approximately 04Z to 09/30/2022 at approximately 04Z through 10/01/2022 from 00Z to approximately 1730Z:
- Key West FL (KBYX)
- Miami FL (KAMX)
- Tampa FL (KTBW)
- Melbourne FL (KMLB)
- Jacksonville FL (KJAX)
- Charleston SC( KCLX)
- Wilmington NC (KLTX)