Why is the National Weather Service at Binghamton, NY radar not working?

The radar had to be turned off for repairs to the radome. The radome protects the main radar components from the elements. The following are pictures of the radar radome repair on November 6, 2012. The radar is expected to be turned back on this afternoon, November 7, 2012.

Below are some image of the NWS Binghamton, NY radar site. Click on the image for a larger view.

The tower is about 82 feet and the dome adds 35 feet to an over height from ground to top of dome of about 117 feet. All equipment and parts will be lifted into the dome via the lift shown in the pictures.

On the front page is a thumbnail image showing the radar. When the radar goes down, a message replaces the radar image as shown below.

Clicking on this image will send you to the KBGM radar page. Just like with the thumbnail, when the radar is down, the image is replaced with a message. This is shown below.

As shown in this image there is a pointer to the radar status message when the radar is going to be down for a significant amount of time. The status message will report the reason for the outage, and the estimated time of return.

Here is an example of the message:

000
NOUS61 KBGM 061248 CCA
FTMBGM

WSR-88D NOTIFICATION MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BINGHAMTON NY
750 AM EDT TUE NOV 6 2012

11/06/2012 1250 UTC

ADJACENT WFO`S...BUF...ALY...CTP...PHI...OKX...VUY.

THE KBGM WSR-88D WILL BE DOWN...DUE TO MAINTENANCE ON THE
RADOME...UNTIL WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.

WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE.

$$

MJ

Status reports about the radar can be found HERE.

• Dual-Polarization Radar Upgrade April 2012.
• The Failure of the Azimuthal Bull Gear.