Thirteen Minutes That Matter-How Gap-Filling Radar Changed Severe Weather Detection in 2025
On May 16, 2025, a powerful supercell tore across southern Kentucky, spawning a devastating long-track tornado. As the storm approached Somerset, Climavision’s KY91 radar detected a tornado debris signature at 02:27 UTC.
Thirteen minutes later, the nearest NEXRAD radar confirmed what KY91 had already seen.
Those thirteen minutes represent precious time for families to seek shelter, for emergency managers to mobilize, and for communities to prepare. In severe weather, minutes are the margin between awareness and impact.
Since 2022, events like the Somerset tornado have reinforced a fundamental truth: radar gaps are no longer an acceptable risk. What follows is a review of Climavision’s most consequential radar case studies of 2025, each demonstrating how gap-filling radar changes what forecasters can see, and when they can see it.
In Summary:
- NEXRAD coverage gaps leave communities vulnerable—radar beams climb too high beyond 85-90 miles, missing low-level tornado signatures.
- Five major 2025 events proved supplemental radar value: unwarned tornado detection, wildfire tracking, lake effect snow detection, and advance tornado warning,
- Low radar beam heights compared to NEXRAD (as low as 260 meters vs. 2,400 meters) allow Climavision radars to detect critical storm features NEXRAD misses.
- Supplemental, not competitive—Climavision works alongside NEXRAD to provide confirmation and fill gaps where traditional coverage falls short. Clmavision radars add 60 miles of coverage in every gap.
The Gap Problem: What The NEXRAD Network Misses
The National Weather Service’s NEXRAD radar fleet forms the backbone of U.S. weather surveillance. But physics imposes limits no matter how advanced the radar. As radar beams travel outward, they rise higher into the atmosphere. This creates coverage gaps where the radar’s view is severely compromised. In these regions, the beam passes over the critical lower atmosphere where severe weather such as tornados, strong wind gusts, snow squalls, and more may form and impact communities.
The implications are sobering: tornadoes can form and dissipate in minutes. Low-level rotation signatures provide the earliest warning signs. Debris detection requires close-range, high-resolution scanning of the lowest atmospheric levels.
2025: Five Events That Demonstrate the Difference
Collins, PA Tornado
September 5, 2025 | View Full Case Study
An EF0 tornado touched down 15.5 miles from PA108 in Millersville, PA. No tornado warning was issued, and no damage survey was initially planned.
The closest NEXRAD to the storm overshot the tornado, but Climavision’s PA108 radar saw something. While NEXRAD scanned at 1,700 meters above ground, PA108’s beam at just 260 meters detected clear rotation and a correlation coefficient drop suggesting debris. Climavision reached out to local partners, and residents shared damage photos. The National Weather Service conducted a survey and confirmed the EF0 tornado.
Impact: A tornado that would have gone undocumented was discovered through collaboration between high-resolution radar data and community response.
Crawford County, PA Fire
April 23, 2025 | View Full Case Study
When fire ignited in Crawford County during heightened wildfire conditions, Climavision’s PA109 radar in Pleasantville detected the smoke plume and tracked its movement in real-time. This type of insight provides critical intelligence for evacuation planning and resource deployment.
Erie, PA Lake Effect Snow
January 3, 2025 | View Full Case Study
Lake effect snow dumped over seven inches across the Erie region. Climavision’s PA109 radar provided critical coverage where NEXRAD systems struggled, detecting snow along a northwest-southeast corridor that was poorly resolved by traditional radar. When visibility drops to near zero in minutes and roads become treacherous, forecasters need to see exactly where the heaviest snow is falling.
Somerset and London, KY Tornado
May 16, 2025 | View Full Case Study
An EF4 tornado tracked across southern Kentucky, causing extensive damage and fatalities. Climavision’s KY91 radar in Jamestown detected the tornado debris signature at 02:27 UTC—thirteen minutes before the nearest NEXRAD. The difference? Beam height. KY91 scanned at 350 meters while KJKL scanned at 2,400 meters (seven times higher).
As the tornado continued toward London, both radars performed well, with KY91 providing complementary confirmation and enhanced spatial resolution for pinpoint accuracy.
Southern Louisiana Tornadoes
October 26, 2025 | View Full Case Study
An EF1 tornado tracked eight miles through rural marsh areas in Terrebonne Parish—terrain nearly impossible to survey quickly. Climavision’s LA14 radar in Chauvin detected the tornado with a clear debris signature. The National Weather Service used Climavision’s data to confirm touchdown location and timing for a tornado that might otherwise have remained undetected and unrecorded.
What Makes the Difference
Climavision’s success in 2025 resulted from strategic planning and technology designed specifically to fill gaps left by traditional networks:
Purpose-Built Placement: Each radar is strategically located and provides 60-mile coverage in areas where beam height and resolution degrade significantly.
Lower Beam Heights: Climavision weather radars continued to fulfill their purpose in 2025 by filling in low-level radar coverage gaps where severe weather impacted communities without warning.
Enhanced Resolution: Superior spatial resolution provides tighter, more defined images of storm features. When forecasters see a well-defined reflectivity hook or clear debris signature, their confidence in issuing warnings increases dramatically.
Supplementary Coverage: Climavision works alongside NEXRAD, not in competition with it. The supplemental radars provide confirmation, additional detail, and enhanced confidence—exactly what forecasters need when lives are on the line.
Why Radar Gaps Can Not Be Ignored
The events of 2025 proved that radar gaps are public safety vulnerabilities. As severe weather patterns continue to evolve, comprehensive radar coverage becomes more critical. The technology to fill these gaps exists. The question is no longer whether we can improve coverage, but whether we will.
Communities in radar gaps deserve the same protection as those closest to NEXRAD locations. They deserve to be seen. They deserve warnings that come thirteen minutes earlier, not thirteen minutes too late.
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