Doppler radar gaps

I found this map of doppler radar coverage in the US and thought the folks here might find it of interest. In looking at where Ellis county is located you can see how we are in the fringe area on several doppler coverages. This is what makes the need for ground spotters so important. The radars don't give the weather service proper coverage to be sure of what exactly is happening around here.

Map 1

Map 2

where the "radar holes" are located and to see the basic coverage of the WSR-88D network. The green falls off at about 100 nm into reds, and the outermost blue color is at 248 nm (the limit of the base data).

The national weather service also says that due to the curve of the planets surface doppler doesn't see the lower part of the storms at a distance. I've also heard experts state that some small tornados don't even show up on radar so I thought it was pretty crappy for Goodland to basically call local spotters liars for reporting small tornados that their radar missed.

I remember one storm where the entire storm was turning like a classic supercell, but it was oddly shaped and elongated in form so Goodland said it couldn't be a supercell and shouldn't produde a tornado. Several funnel clouds were reported by both spotters and the public that time. More experienced meteorologists will tell you that most any severe storm can produce a tornado. Goodland just got this thing up their butt after Greensburg thinking it had to be a town killer to be worried about.

Radars give you a good idea what the storm is capable of, direction of travel, etc., and I can tell alot from a radar image. But the spotters are still what confirms everything.

It looks like they need a radar put on the 4 corner area of Rooks, Osborne, Ellis, and Russell county. No wonder its hard to view storms that are in Graham and Russell counties.