What do the different colors on radar mean?

Velocity imagery is almost always displayed with red and green colors. Red shows winds blowing away from the radar, and green shows winds blowing toward it. Stronger winds usually equate to brighter colors on the radar imagery.

What does purple mean in a storm?

Hail, which is common in thunderstorms, is extremely reflective, and can easily return high-end reflexivities, so purple on a radar map often means hail is occurring. Ice pellets have higher reflectiveness than rain, but lower than hail.

What color is a tornado on the radar?

This often appears as a red area directly next to a green area as seen on the National Weather Service image below. If the radar shows a strong area of rotation and a debris ball in the same area, it is a strong signature that there is a tornado occurring.

What is purple and pink on weather radar?

Areas that have a blue shading indicate precipitation that is snow or mainly snow, pink areas indicate either freezing rain, sleet or a wintry mixture of differing precipitation types, and the various shades of green, yellow and red have their usual meaning as increasing intensities of rainfall.

What are the color codes for weather?

Is there a list of all the warnings and watches and the color codes?

Hazard / Weather Event Click on the Hazard/Weather Event For Definitions	Priority	Color Name
Tornado Warning	2	Red
Extreme Wind Warning	3	Darkorange
Severe Thunderstorm Warning	4	Orange
Flash Flood Warning	5	Darkred

What do purple clouds mean?

Some speculated it was an omen, promising the destruction to come. But a purple sky is actually a phenomenon which often precedes or follows a major typhoon or hurricane. Purple skies are the result of a weather phenomenon called ‘scattering’.

What color means tornado?

green
The green color does signify the storm is severe though. The color is from the water droplets suspended in the storm, absorbing red sunlight and radiating green frequencies.

How can you tell a tornado is coming at night?

Many tornadoes are wrapped in heavy precipitation and can’t be seen. Day or night – Loud, continuous roar or rumble, which doesn’t fade in a few seconds like thunder. Night – Small, bright, blue-green to white flashes at ground level near a thunderstorm (as opposed to silvery lightning up in the clouds).

What does Black on a weather radar mean?

As you know, dark colors like red or black = bad! Those colors mean lots of energy is being reflected back to the radar from things like hail or tons of heavy rain.

What are the first signs of a tornado?

Tornado Warning: Quick Reference Guide

• A dark, often greenish, sky.
• Wall clouds.
• Large, heavy hail often without any rain.
• A sudden die down of wind – also the air may become very still.
• A loud roar similar to a freight train may be heard.
• A cloud of dust and debris approaching, with or without a visible funnel.

What is Code Purple in weather?

Normally, local homeless shelters issue a Code Purple on nights when the temperature falls below 32-degrees or the equivalent with the wind chill factor. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic however, homeless individuals have had a much harder time finding a warm place to stay.