Wyatt Emmerich wrote:
Flying back from Atlanta to Jackson, my Echo Flight finally received its
downloaded Nexrad data. It showed me flying right in the middle of a big
blotch of red. I look outside the window. I'm in light 40 F light drizzle
with ceilings of about 6000 above a broken 2000 layer. I turn on the
Bendix/King RDR 2000 on-board radar. It shows nothing. Nothing on the
stormscope.

Why the huge contrast between the on-board and the Nexrad return? Perhaps
the Nexrad was picking up water far above me, while the on-board was looking
ahead (I was at 5,000.)

Hi Wyatt,

I see the 12/19 date on your posting and note that I was flying on 12/18 (maybe
that's when you noticed this phenomenon?) and noticed a lot of NEXRAD radar
returns (but nothing red) in western North Carolina, but no ground stations were
reporting any precipitation.

Ceilings were in the 4-6000 range. I and several others reported light rime
icing in the 6-9000 range, in the areas where the NEXRAD was showing
precipitation returns. I ultimately descended to 5000 and completed my trip at
that altitude, below the bases, and there was no precipitation at 5000 ft.

Dave
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