Langley Hill Radar down this week

Copalis Crossing, WA – The Langley Hill Radar will be turned off this week for upgrades.

The National Weather Service is reminding residents that the radar station at Langley Hill, along coastal Washington, will be taken offline today for an equipment upgrade and is expected to come back online by Friday, May 17.

According to the NWS, the radar will undergo major upgrades and maintenance during this time as part of the “Service Life Extension Program”.

Technicians during this time are scheduled to install a new signal processor, replacing obsolete technology, which they say will improve processing speed and data quality, provide added functionality, and support IT security.

The NWS says that this is the first of four major upgrades planned in the next five years to replace and refurbish major components of the 20-year old equipment and to keep the radars operational into the 2030s.

The $150M investment is being made by the three organizations that use these radars, the NOAA National Weather Service, United States Air Force and Federal Aviation Administration.

Other Service Life Extension Projects include refurbishing the transmitter, pedestal, and equipment shelters.

During the outage, radar coverage is available from adjacent radar sites including Portland and Camano Island.

The upgrade at this radar site was originally scheduled for October 2017, but it was delayed until now due to ongoing active weather in October.

Work on the Seattle/Camano Island radar (KATX) has already finished and that radar is operational.