After nearly five months without an operating radar, the National Weather Service office in Lake Charles has service restored to the radar site that covers their southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas communities.

Hurricane Laura's 150 mph winds caused major damage to the radar, resulting in the site going offline on August 27, 2020.

The last radar sweep before it was destroyed, showed Laura's intense eye wall moving over Cameron and Calcasieu parishes.

For the past few months, the meteorologists in Lake Charles had to use overlapping radars from near-by sites, such as the radar located in DeRidder. Without accurate radar coverage, low-level circulations and tornadoes can be hard to detect.

The restoration process was competed within five months, two months ahead of schedule. Spring severe weather season is fast approaching, so it is great news to have radar coverage across all of south Louisiana once again.

The entire team at the National Weather Service office in Lake Charles managed the restoration process.