Jesse, To answer your question succinctly, yes. To be more specific, here is a good map showing radar coverage below 10000 feet for all the NEXRAD radars we have in the contiguous US.
https://www.roc.noaa.gov/WSR88D/Images/WSR-88DCONUSCoverage1000.jpg OR https://www.roc.noaa.gov/WSR88D/PublicDocs/WSR-88DCONUSCoverage2011.pdf (Same maps just different formats) The white areas are where there is no coverage from a radar (there is an assumption in that... ask if you need to know). That should give you a clue as to where you could see birds on radar in the West. Now the problem becomes less concentrating wind patterns in the west and that problem of terrain for migration. I have seen on a few occasions migration on radar in the Front Range of Colorado, but it isn't like you would see out east. I tend to see it more as dispersals than I do see it as migration patterns in the west (anecdotal). It would makes sense that the places you have seen migration on radar recently would show up. Those places all have really good coverage. In the West, you have to be better about your radar interpretation, especially in mountainous areas. Those wind directions that people like to pick up on to find birds that are anomalous to the flow are much harder to understand in the West because of... well... more anomalous flows around mountains and terrain. Another reason we might have more trouble seeing birds in the West on radar is because of flight altitudes. They may have to fly higher than most of the radar coverage can see on our normal .5˚ base reflectivity scans. We can look at other scan levels, but the cone of visible returns is smaller, and thus limits you even more to seeing migration. The last option for why it may be harder in the West to see birds on radar is because of the locations of our radars. Aside from beam blockage by terrain, in very mountainous regions with radars, the radars can be more affected by temperature inversions which can cause significant beam refraction (even making it refract all the way to the ground) making for very hard to read radar echoes and often beams that don't make it high enough into the atmosphere to intersect with migrating birds. Hope that helps. If you have any questions, radar or meteorology-wise, please feel free to ask. I can try to explain further or point you to resources that may be useful in this pursuit. Good luck. Bryan Bryan Guarente Instructional Designer/Meteorologist UCAR/The COMET Program Boulder, CO On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 12:25 AM, Jesse Ellis <calocit...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hey all- > > I should probably go outside and listen... Anyway, I've asked about this > before, whether one can ever see birds on radar in the west. It looks like > a lot of birds are hitting the Gulf tonight, and heading north toward the > eastern Great Lakes, but you can also see pulses as night falls in Arizona, > and on radar in Yuma and the central part of the Central Valley in > California. (Also possibly along the Front Range in CO?) Can anyone with > more experience confirm this? > > Thanks much, and good night birding, > Jesse Ellis > > -- > Jesse Ellis > Post-doctoral Researcher > Dept. of Integrative and Comparative Biology, > UCLA > -- > *NFC-L List Info:* > Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME> > Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES> > Subscribe, Configuration and > Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > *Archives:* > The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> > Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L> > BirdingOnThe.Net <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html> > *Please submit your observations to eBird > <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>!* > -- > -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --