Romeoville, Illinois weather radar
Dear Tom,
Why are the Weather Service radars in Romeoville and elsewhere "down for
maintenance" so often? It’s troubling, especially during inclement weather.
Ray Deremo, La Grange Park
Dear Ray,
It's a matter of routine maintenance and computer software upgrades,
according to meteorologist Mark Ratzer at the Romeoville office of the Chicago
National Weather Service. Please note, though, that the surveillance patterns of
individual radars overlap. When a radar is out of service, storms within its primary
scanning area continue to be monitored by adjacent radars. Ratzer says the
Romeoville radar was occasionally down for maintenance this spring so panels in the
radar dome could be replaced, and also for an upgrade to the computer software that
processes radar data. That upgrade is being installed at all radars across the country.