Contact:  Buddy McIntyre             FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
          Randee Exler               8/22/96

WEATHER RADAR PREFERRED SITE SELECTED FOR WESTERN ARKANSAS/EASTERN OKLAHOMA

Slatington Mountain, 18 miles southwest of Mt. Ida, Ark., is the preferred site for the new Next Generation Weather Radar (WSR-88D) to serve the western Arkansas/eastern Oklahoma area, the National Weather Service announced today.

"The Slatington Mountain site best satisfies the meteorological needs of this area," said National Weather Service Director Elbert W. Friday Jr. "This location would have no obstructions to the radar beam and would provide excellent coverage for the region."

Le Flore County in Oklahoma, and Scott and Polk counties in Arkansas, are too far from surrounding WSR-88D radars for reliable detection of some severe weather phenomena. In addition to satisfying this meteorological need, siting the new radar on Slatington Mountain would enable the NWS to balance the new radar with the existing radars located in Tulsa, Okla., Little Rock, Ark, Shreveport, La., and Fort Worth, Texas.

The next steps for this project include a site permit, an environmental assessment, meetings with local officials and boards, and site design and construction.

"Now that a preferred site has been selected, we will immediately begin our next steps, starting with the environmental assessment," Friday said.

Slatington Mountain is on National Forest Service property. Equipment delivery date for the system is expected in February 1997, assuming there are no delays in the installation process. The new radar could be operating as early as April 1997, during this area's severe weather season.

The new WSR-88D for western Arkansas/eastern Oklahoma was recommended in the October 1995 Secretary's Report to Congress on Adequacy of NEXRAD Coverage and Degradation of Weather Services under National Weather Service Modernization for 32 Areas of Concern after a Department of Commerce team found degraded radar coverage for Le Flore, Scott and Polk counties. Using the Commerce Secretary's report as a starting point, an evaluation team completed an analysis to determine the optimal radar location. Slatington Mountain was one of 18 sites evaluated.

Weather radars are one of the many tools that make up the modernized National Weather Service. Other technologies that complement the radar network include advanced weather satellites, automated surface observing systems, superspeed computers and sophisticated information processing and communications systems.

                                
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