Keeping you updated with the WINK Live Doppler 3x

To help protect you through all types of weather, we invested in WINK Live Doppler 3X: Southwest Florida’s Most Powerful and Accurate Radar. By having one million watts of power, three times more than any other local radar, we have the ability see farther into the Gulf, the Atlantic, and even to the south of Cuba. In fact, WINK Live Doppler 3X’s maximum diameter is over 600 miles wide! That range allows us to detect potential threats early and notify you first.

WINK Live Doppler 3X is a Dual-Polarimetric radar that transmits and receives pulses in both a horizontal and vertical orientation. As a result, the returning frequencies provide measurements of the horizontal and vertical dimensions of targets, supplying WINK meteorologists with better estimates of the size, shape, and variety of elements in the atmosphere.

That data was critical when analyzing Hurricane Ian strengthening into a Category 5 off the Southwest Florida coast on Sept. 28, 2022. WINK Live Doppler 3X was able to successfully indicate increasing winds up to 170 mph aloft inside the eyewall of the storm before landfall. Typically, 90% of that wind makes it down to the surface. WINK Live Doppler 3X’s durability and strategic location inland, away from the higher impacts along the coast, are why we were still able to get crucial data on the storm hours before, during, and after Ian’s landfall.

In late August of 2023, WINK Live Doppler 3X tracked Hurricane Idalia’s every move in the Gulf of Mexico. While the eye stayed 150 miles offshore, Southwest Florida still felt surge, wind, heavy rain, and a tornado threat. Our radar detected multiple areas of rotation while tornado warnings were issued on the eastern “dirty side” of the storm for several hours. WINK Live Doppler 3X was also able to indicate who had the greatest local risk of flooding because of the 5-9” of rain that fell across Charlotte and Desoto County.

WINK Live Doppler 3X does an excellent job at indicating wind and rain, but also tornado debris. On the morning of April 30, 2023, an EF-1 tornado touched down in eastern Charlotte County and destroyed a barn along Bermont Road. The WINK Weather Team, Southwest Florida’s Most Trusted, was the first to warn viewers a tornado was on the ground because a debris ball was detected in a unique radar tool called correlation coefficient. Our radar, in highly accurate scans, knows the difference between rain and other elements swirling through the air. For example, in the image below, rain is detected as red and debris is green or blue. When we see those colors and it’s right in the area of strong rotation, we can infer that a tornado is on the ground. Only strong tornadoes can hurl debris very high into the air, which is why having a local radar nearby is critical for advance warning. The closer radar is to a tornado, the more of it we can see, especially debris.

But there’s another reason why location is hugely important when it comes to weather radars. The ability of WINK Live Doppler 3X to provide the highest quality and most accurate data to more people in Southwest Florida is due to the radar’s rural location. That’s because every radar has what’s called a “cone of silence” near its site, where no data is going out or being received. The small part of the atmosphere immediately above the radar will never be scanned and shows up blank. That means putting it in a densely populated area prevents everyone nearby from receiving data, and requires the use of less accurate radars located more than 100 miles away. With WINK Live Doppler 3X’s location out in the open across inland Charlotte County, our “cone of silence” affects a much smaller number of people and provides the best data during severe weather and tropical weather when you need it the most.

WINK Live Doppler 3X even has the ability to analyze snow and ice at different layers of the atmosphere. That’s important for us during severe weather, because our radar can not only detect hail aloft inside the storm, it can detect the size of it, too. When it’s not raining, our radar can play an important role during dry season, as well. If a wildfire breaks out, we’ll know the size of the smoke plume, how high it is and what direction it’s traveling. That’s helpful for those with asthma and respiratory issues who want to stay inside and avoid the smoke from miles away. On a lighter note, WINK Live Doppler 3X frequently scans bugs and even migratory patterns of birds. The colors below in this radar image are birds at sunrise, often called a “roost ring.”

Our no. 1 priority at WINK is the safety of you and your family. With Southwest Florida’s Most Powerful and Accurate Radar at our disposal, you can always trust us to keep you ahead of the storm and prepared for all that Mother Nature throws our way.