Dear Tom,
Can you provide some information about this new type of radar that is called “Foodar”?
Freddie
Dear Freddie,
The National Weather Service deployed its first weather radars, the WSR-57s (short for Weather Surveillance Radar, 1957) in the 1960s. That network of 66 radars served the nation into the 1990s, at which time the current system of 121 Doppler radars, the technologically advanced WSR-88D (for 1988, Doppler), replaced the aging WSR-57s.
“FooDar,” however, is not a new weather radar, as we suspect you know, but rather a character newly introduced in the popular comic strip, “Get Fuzzy,” created by Darby Conley. FooDar is a cat who possesses a powerful internal system–a “food radar”–that enables him to detect the presence of anything edible in his vicinity.
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or asktomwhy@wgntv.com (Mail volume precludes personal response.)
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
