I saw these strange echoes on Charleston's radar (KRLX) this morning that resembled snow bands:
This animation shows the echoes as they moved into southern West Virginia. Satellite imagery, however, showed clear skies at the time, and sure enough, when I looked outside, there was nothing to be seen in the southern sky but a few small cumulus clouds. No contrails or anything of that sort were visible.
A snow band would show up clearly on satellite and visually in person, so what was causing the band echo on radar? It turns out that it was military "chaff", thin strips of aluminum foil dropped from aircraft. The chaff's high radar reflectivity is designed to confuse/jam enemy radar, and consequently it shows up strongly on doppler weather radars.
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From Dan: Please Read
To my regular readers, I offer my apologies for this heavy-handed notice. Unfortunately it has become necessary, so please bear with me!
Please don't copy/upload this site's content to social media or other web sites. Those copies have been a critical problem for me, seriously harming this site and my photography/storm chasing operation by diverting traffic, viewers, engagement and income. "Credit" and "exposure" does not benefit this site or my operation, rather they threaten my ability to cover my operating expenses. Please read my full explanation for this notice here.
Before continuing, check each box to agree to and acknowledge these two statements:
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This chase was a routine television assignment in my role as a cameraman. As a result, many of these don't have a dedicated chase log.
This chase was only recorded in my mileage reports, no detailed log was written for it.
