“What didn’t go right? Observations are pitiful off our coastline this winter.  What is going on?   Buoys with no windspeeds, buoys that aren’t working or not in place, and the dirty little secret we never talk about; horrendous radar coverage offshore.  There’s no excuse to not have two radars in place along the Oregon and Washington Coastline.  That tornado that moved into Lincoln City?  Someone from the NWS can correct me if I am wrong, but I think the LOWEST the beam can see out there is about 15,000!  Even after some of the signal makes it through gaps in the Coast Range, we’re missing the entire lowest section of the atmosphere along the Pacific Northwest coastline.  At least they got organized enough in Washington to put in a coastal radar somewhere near Hoquiam within the next two years.  That would have shown us exactly where the low pressure center was.  There needs to be another radar near Newport or Florence to at least partly fill the gap between the Eureka radar and the new one coming up north.  I wish we had the willpower or leadership to get that done.” (Mark Nelson)