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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
Anna Falkenmire

Why Newcastle's rain radar could look clear when it's drizzling outside

The start of the week has brought wet conditions to Newcastle. Picture by Peter Lorimer

SPECIALIST technicians are working on fixing Newcastle's rain radar system after it suffered a glitch and shut down four days ago.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) called in workers from Sydney to examine why the city's rain radar stopped working just before 6pm on Friday.

A BOM spokesperson confirmed radar images from Newcastle were unavailable on the organisation's website and app, and could be for almost a week.

"The radar's motor suffered an electrical fault," the spokesperson said.

"The fault has been investigated by Sydney technicians and new parts have been ordered."

The radar system is expected to be fixed by July 6.

The BOM spokesperson confirmed Newcastle's weather stations were not affected, as they were not connected to the radar system.

The next closest radar systems in Sydney, at Terry Hills, and in the Namoi area, at Blackjack mountain, provide "overlapping coverage of Newcastle and most of the surrounding areas", the BOM spokesperson said.

"The Bureau's weather forecasts and weather warning service has been designed so that it is resilient and not dependent on any one piece of equipment," they said.

"Forecasts and warnings for all regions are based on a combination of many different observing systems including satellites, automatic weather stations, radars, rain gauges, and hydrological monitoring stations."

The BOM's MetEye service provides the public with images that show temperature, rain and wind information.

The shutdown comes during a week of wet weather for Newcastle, with 2.8mm of rain falling in the Nobbys BOM gauge in Newcastle.

More rain fell in the city on Tuesday, before skies are expected to begin clearing on Wednesday.

To see more stories and read today's paper download the Newcastle Herald news app here.

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