Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) - The National Weather Service will begin testing in three areas of northeastern Indiana this week as part of a study to determine the site for a new high-tech weather detection system.
Two of the sites are in Kosciusko County.
Testing will begin Friday on possible sites to build a NEXRAD Doppler radar system that would provide weather information for northeastern Indiana and northwestern Ohio, the weather service announced Tuesday.
Although a team of weather service officials examined 14 areas in the region in June, the National Weather Service said Tuesday that the three sites now being studied are not necessarily the finalists.
"I want to emphasize that, while the site selection team is narrowing the list of site options, this doesn't mean we've narrowed it down to three specific locations," said Gary Foltz of the weather service's central region headquarters in Kansas City.
"We still have a number of variables to examine and weigh before we complete the site selection process."
A team of technicians will collect data at a location just east of Warsaw in Kosciusko County; near North Webster, also in Kosciusko County; and near Cromwell in western Noble County.
Final selection of a weather service office and radar system is expected by mid-October. Installation of the new radar, which was originally scheduled for Nov. 1, 1997, has been moved up to mid-June 1997, Foltz said.
In addition to technical studies, the technicians will make economic and environmental impact assessments at each site.
The radar system would be designed to give the region advance warning of approaching tornadoes and other severe weather. It also could give warning of lake-effect snowstorms that frequently blanket South Bend.
"Portions of Indiana have been vulnerable to undetected tornadoes and other severe systems for far too long," said Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind.
