Still accurate in 2026 — and still critical for our area
I am bumping this because the core problem Dan Stillman laid out in the Washington Post piece remains very real.
What has improved locally
Climavision installed a gap-filling X-band radar on a water tower in Reno (Lamar County) in 2023. As of early 2026 that site is counted among the six Texas gaps they have closed (along with Jackson, Reeves, Hamilton, Scurry, and Brazos). It gives us better low-level data than we had when this article was first posted, and local emergency management has access to the feed, but we do not. And we know of no iOS or Android radar app that has access to it. If you find one, please let us know.
What has not changed
Eight significant Texas gaps remain (King, La Salle, Mason, Medina, Montague, Polk, Smith, and Starr). Several of those still affect neighboring counties and the broader Red River Valley / East Texas region we serve. Nationally, millions of people are still under the same low-level blind spots the 2024 article described. Private gap-fillers help where they exist, but the federal NEXRAD network’s coverage holes have not been systematically fixed.
This is exactly why we keep pushing EmComm tools, SKYWARN, and better local awareness. When the beam is too high, minutes matter and trained eyes on the ground (and mesh networks) become the difference.
Please feel free to share the original post or this update with anyone who still thinks “we already have good radar coverage.” We don’t — not everywhere, and not low enough.
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Phillip Beall (W5EBC)