St. Petersburg, Fla., cable news network gets second-generation Doppler radar.

Byline: Kevin Bouffard

Oct. 31--Every major TV station has weather radar, but the new system at Bay News 9 is poles apart from the others. Bay News 9, a St. Petersburg-based cable news network, is the first station in Florida and one of the first in the nation to employ the new dual-pole Doppler radar technology.

"The prime advantage is there's a whole lot more data available about storms, down to the detail of how big the raindrops are," said Mike Clay, the network's chief meteorologist. "The more information we have, the better we'll do with warnings and alerting people to severe weather and thunderstorms."

The first generation of Doppler radar allowed meteorologists to see inside the clouds via horizontal pulses from the radar. This gave them the ability to see precipitation and its direction and velocity.

The second generation dual-pole systems use horizontal and vertical pulses that enable forecasters to determine the kind of precipitation -- rain, snow or sleet -- the weather front is producing and the amount -- light or heavy. It can determine the size of raindrops or hail.