(WKBN) – It is Severe Weather Awareness week across the region.
When you watch Storm Team 27, you may catch arrows popping up on radar at times. These arrows have meaning to the meteorologist tracking the storm.
Storm Team 27 VIPIR radar produces “SCITS” when storms become strong enough. A SCIT(Storm Cell Identification and Tracking) is displayed as an arrow on the stronger storms.
The arrows point in the direction the storm is moving toward. The meteorologist may click them to get more information to help identify how strong the storm is. The information can tell them how big the hail may be, or how strong the wind is. It can tell them if the storm is rotating enough to produce a tornado. This information can be clicked and displayed for the user and the viewer in a small amount of time.
These arrows show up in two different colors. Each color will represent a threshold of severe parameters to tell the meteorologist if the storm is strong or rotating.
The red/pink colored arrow is called a Severe SCIT. This arrow is an indicator of hail, strong wind and heavy rain.
The orange arrow is called a Shear SCIT. This arrow is an indicator of rotation. If you see an orange SCIT, the storm may be rotating.
These arrows give the meteorologist a quick and easy way to identify if a storm is going to produce severe weather.
