Beginning Monday, September 10, the KGJX WSR-88D radar operated by the NOAA National Weather Service in Grand Junction, Colo. will experience intermittent outages during the following seven to ten days for the refurbishment of the transmitter. Although the form, fit, and function of the transmitter will remain the same, old breakers and cables original to the radar will be replaced with modern fuses and new cables. This will help keep the 23-year-old radar operating smoothly for at least another two decades.

This transmitter update is the second major project of the NEXRAD Service Life Extension Program, a series of upgrades and replacements that will keep our nation’s radars viable into the 2030’s. NOAA’s National Weather Service, the United States Air Force, and the Federal Aviation Administration are investing $150 million in the seven-year program. The first project was the installation of the new signal processor. The two remaining projects are the refurbishment of the pedestal and equipment shelters. The Service Life Extension Program will be completed in 2022.

 

During the downtime, adjacent radars include:

 

Cedar City, UT

Salt Lake City, UT

Riverton, WY

Cheyenne, WY

Denver/Boulder, CO

Pueblo, CO

Albuquerque, NM

Flagstaff, AZ

 

For direct access to any of these surrounding radar sites, go to the following web page:

https://radar.weather.gov/index.htm

The KGJX WSR-88D is part of a network of 159 federal weather radars. The Radar Operations Center in Norman, Oklahoma, provides lifecycle management and support for all WSR-88Ds.

For a radar mosaic loop of the northern and central Rocky Mountain region:

https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/Conus/northrockies_loop.php

The National Weather Service in Grand Junction, Colorado can be found at:

website – https://www.weather.gov/gjt/

facebook – https://www.facebook.com/NWSGrandJunction

twitter – https://twitter.com/nwsgjt