
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 9, 1993                   TAG: 9308090052
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WAKEFIELD                                LENGTH: Medium

NEW RADAR ON HORIZON NEXT TWISTER MAY BE LESS OF A SURPRISE

A new radar scheduled for installation later this year probably would have detected a tornado that ripped through Southside Virginia, but meteorologists believe the equipment could have done little to prevent the injuries and deaths.

"Tornadoes like this are extremely rare in Virginia, so only a few people will take cover in a tornado warning. Some people will go to a window to look, and the third group doesn't care," Peter Wolf, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Richmond, said Sunday. "In the Midwest, they don't do that."

Three people were killed and 119 injured when the tornado cut a 40- to 50-foot path through a Wal-Mart store Friday in Colonial Heights. A fourth person was killed at a construction site in Prince George County.

A tornado watch was issued about 1 p.m., and a warning followed at 1:35 p.m., Wolf said. Petersburg Mayor Rosalyn Dance said the warning was several minutes too late, although city officials did not blame the weather service.

However, the new type of radar scheduled for installation in Wakefield, about 20 miles southeast of Petersburg, probably would have detected the tornado, Wolf said. The new radar measures the rotation of winds inside a thunderstorm.

The new doppler radar has been installed since the late 1970s in the Midwest, but such systems are only now being installed in the mid-Atlantic states, where twisters are less frequent.

Western Virginia will get doppler radar in 1995, Wolf said.

by CNB