Shannon Radar Problems

Discodog

Anyone heard or read anything as to when Shannon will be back online?

Oscar Bravo

During essential maintenance of the Shannon Radar a fault was discovered. As a result the radar will be shutdown for about 1 week from Friday 30th November. Met Éireann apologises for this interruption in service.

Discodog

A week from today so almost 2 weeks in total. Thanks for the info.

pauldry

Shannon is a bit of a botch isnt it.

Maybe someone on boards could use the Windows Application Paintbrush and add it in:)

aob9

Maybe it's waterlogged. Seriously though, it's a pretty unreliable piece of kit.

mickger844posts

Its a bit of a trend now when they do routine maintenance they find something wrong and lengthy downtime is a result. A fair amount of precipitation forecast this week so it will be missed.

Discodog

Someone should be looking into the recent major refurbishment. Clearly it wasn't done properly. Needless to say it plays second fiddle to Dublin. An ATC radar would be fixed in hours not weeks.

Sponge Bob

Iirc it is new from c 2010

Villain

Seems like good practice to me, i.e. the fault was found and is been resolved, much better than having a fault that goes undiscovered.

Wolfe_IRE

Oscar Bravo wrote: »

During essential maintenance of the Shannon Radar a fault was discovered.

Bsal

Pity we can't have a couple of NEXRAD:D radars like in the US. With the upgrades at Dublin and Shannon being a bit of a botch they probably cost the same.:mad:

Villain

Bsal wrote: »

With the upgrades at Dublin and Shannon being a bit of a botch they probably cost the same.:mad:

What botch was that?

Conmaicne Mara

Living on the West coast, it would be nice to have a decent working radar system that's up to the job. Other countries like the UK, and to an extent the East of Ireland given our prevailing winds have good warning. Out West we just get wet

Discodog

Villain wrote: »

What botch was that?

The Shannon radar was out for weeks undergoing a major refurbishment. We then had more time whilst they sorted problems. Clearly the job either wasn't done properly or the radar needs scrapping.

Tae laidir

There should be another radar station in Belmullet anyway.
As well as providing information on weather approaching from the NW, it would also provide some form of backup for Shannon.

bogman

Still down, not the first time in recent times either




Belmullet is mentioned, is there a monitoring station there also?

Mycroft H

bogman wrote: »

Still down, not the first time in recent times either




Belmullet is mentioned, is there a monitoring station there also?

There is one there since the 50s

http://www.met.ie/about/weatherobservingstations/belmullet.asp

It's a fairly important european station considering it's position in the Atlantic.

Su Campu

BX 19 wrote: »

There is one there since the 50s

http://www.met.ie/about/weatherobservingstations/belmullet.asp

It's a fairly important european station considering it's position in the Atlantic.

Belmullet was fully manned 24/7 until this summer, when it was made fully automatic.

Mycroft H

Su Campu wrote: »

Belmullet was fully manned 24/7 until this summer, when it was made fully automatic.

That's a shame. I dropped up there a few years ago (was touring by bike) and got a small tour, cool place.

I suppose with technology, manned stations are going away.

Jpmarn

There is another radar station in Belfast. Why does met.ie not take from it to give better coverage to the north West. The UK met office takes from the radars at Dublin and Shannon.

Sponge Bob

The weather radar should be in Dooncarton (a mountain east of Belmullet) and on Mt Gabriel near Schull in Cork....not down in a feckin hole in Shannon.

Comhrá

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The weather radar should be in Dooncarton (a mountain east of Belmullet) and on Mt Gabriel near Schull in Cork....not down in a feckin hole in Shannon.

And I suppose it would never break down in either of those locations?

Mycroft H

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The weather radar should be in Dooncarton (a mountain east of Belmullet) and on Mt Gabriel near Schull in Cork....not down in a feckin hole in Shannon.

Bellmullett is the windiest place in Ireland, not sure I'd want a fancy expensive radar there.

lovelyhurler

Everybody's right - there should be a radar up around Belmullet or somewhere else in the northwest.
Only thing is how would Met pay for it - these things are not cheap, and the government aren't happy parting with cash for anything that's not 'vital' at the moment. They'd probably see a weather radar as more of a folly than anything else.
Also, you'd probably have every NIMBY complaining about putting one in some godforsaken windswept part of the northwest anyway.

Sponge Bob

Dont be daft lads. You put the weather Radar inside the RADAR STATION in those two locations, its just that they can see out onto the Atlantic as the RADAR STATIONS are high up...unlike bloody Shannon.

eg > http://goo.gl/maps/NXB5R and http://binged.it/QHmtzf

Joe Public

If this was a radar station run by ameteur enthusiasts then they might be an excuse for all the down time but this is way beyond what's acceptable.

Mycroft H

http://www.met.ie/news/display.asp?ID=185

Met Eireann apologises for the continued interruption of service from the Shannon Radar. During routine maintenance, a faulty drive motor and gearbox were diagnosed. Met Eireann technicians have been working on the faults all week; the drive motor has been replaced, but the delivery of a new gearbox from suppliers has been delayed and is expected by Monday 10th. The installation of the new gearbox and other tasks necessary to bring the Radar back into service are likely to take a few days thereafter.

Waiting on parts seems to be the delay. I wouldn't think Rain Radar gearboxes are off the shelve items

Rougies

BX 19 wrote: »

http://www.met.ie/news/display.asp?ID=185



Waiting on parts seems to be the delay. I wouldn't think Rain Radar gearboxes are off the shelve items

Maybe the gearbox hasn't got it's bearings yet either

Joe Public

I wonder if the Dublin radar uses the same type parts and what happens if it goes faulty?
borrow a few bits from Shannon sure who'd notice?

Comhrá

Update December 10: The replacement gearbox has been delivered and installation has commenced. It is hoped to have the radar back online in the next 48 hours.

Latest info from Met Eireann website.

http://www.met.ie/news/display.asp?ID=185

snaps

tippman1 wrote: »

Latest info from Met Eireann website.

http://www.met.ie/news/display.asp?ID=185

luckily though with the amount of work and downtime Shannon has it must all be under warranty!

BarryM

tippman1 wrote: »

And I suppose it would never break down in either of those locations?

Mt Gabriel has 24 hour IAA cover, presumably 'cos Shannon ATC needs to be available most of the time :rolleyes:

BarryM

tippman1 wrote: »

Latest info from Met Eireann website.

http://www.met.ie/news/display.asp?ID=185

My Chrome is showing an Ooops for that link

http://www.met.ie/news/display.asp?ID=185 itself is showing the info that was quoted in an earlier post, nothing about the delivery.....maybe the wrong part....

In general terms ME's technology is pretty crap, considering they have a fairly good income of their own from selling forecasts. The jerkiness of the images on the nightly forecasts indicates the level of hardware they have.

Discodog

Shannon is back online

Comhrá

Just spotted that

redsteveireland

And offline, and online, and offline again...

Comhrá

They're probably breaking it in.......trying not to overwork the new gearbox too hard till it beds in properly?

[-0-]

Can they not keep spare parts at the site?

Jpmarn

tippman1 wrote: »

They're probably breaking it in.......trying not to overwork the new gearbox too hard till it beds in properly?

They should keep it oiled and greased to prevent the gearbox from going out of line and burning out the motor.

Joe Public

It can't be easy putting it back together!

irishgeo

a radar already is in place on dooncarton mountain, its just for airplanes though.

Discodog

As the bloody thing is down again can anyone tell me when the rain will arrive in Galway?

DOCARCH

Discodog wrote: »

As the bloody thing is down again can anyone tell me when the rain will arrive in Galway?

I can tell you...it will arrive when little droplets of water start falling from the clouds...then, and only then, will the rain will have arrived.

Discodog

Someone must of worked late. It's back.

Discodog

Spoke too soon. It's 1.00pm & the last update was 11.15am!

snaps

Dublins down now.

Tae laidir

Come on Shannon.
We're all depending on you.
You can do it!!

aob9

.........and Shannon down again, come on guys what are you doing???????????

Joe Public

Swapping around parts?

airuser

Shannon up Dublin Down

Discodog

It appears that something has happened to the ME site & the radar. It was working on my mobile earlier today but now it only works on my phone's stock browser.