WSR-57 radars were the primary weather surveillance radar used by the United States for over 35 years. The National Weather Service operated a network of this model radar across the country, watching for severe weather.

History

The WSR-57 (Weather Surveillance Radar - 1957) was the first 'modern' weather radar. Initially commissioned at the Miami Hurricane Forecast Center, the WSR-57 was installed in other parts of the Contiguous United States (CONUS). The WSR-57 was the first generation of radars designed expressly for a national warning network. The WSR-57 was designed in 1957 by Dewey Soltow using World War II technology, using modified versions of those used by United States Navy aircraft. Designated AN/FPS-41 by the military, it provided only coarse reflectivity data and no velocity data, which made it extremely difficult to predict tornadoes. Weather systems were traced across the radar screen using grease pencils. Forecasters had to manually turn a crank to adjust the radar's scan elevation, and needed considerable skill to judge the intensity of storms based on green blotches on the radar scope. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has pictures of the Charleston, SC, WSR-57 radar image of the 1989 Hurricane Hugo. A WSR-57 dish, located on the roof of the National Hurricane Center (NHC), was blown away by Hurricane Andrew. The NHC report on Hurricane Andrew shows its last radar image, as well as images from nearby WSR-88D radars. As the network of WSR-57 radars aged, some were replaced with WSR-74S models of similar performance but with better reliability. WSR-57 operators sometimes had to scramble for spare parts no longer manufactured in this country. 128 of the WSR-57 and WSR-74 model radars were spread across the country as the National Weather Service's radar network until the 1990s. The WSR-57 radars were gradually replaced by the Weather Surveillance Radar - 1988, Doppler, WSR-88D, which NOAA named the NEXRAD network. The last WSR-57 radar in the United States was decommissioned on December 2, 1996.

Radar properties

Classification of radar systems

Under the Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), all U.S. military radar and tracking systems are assigned a unique identifying alphanumeric designation. The letters “AN” (for Army-Navy) are placed ahead of a three-letter code. Thus, the AN/FPS-41 represents the 41st design of an Army-Navy “Fixed, Radar, Search” electronic device.

Radar sites

The 66 former sites of the WSR-57 include the following: