over
Minneapolis, 1965 The WSR-57 (Weather Surveillance Radar – 1957) was the first 'modern' weather radar. Initially commissioned at the Miami Hurricane Forecast Center, the WSR-57 was installed in other parts of the
Contiguous United States (CONUS). The WSR-57 was the first generation of radars designed expressly for a national warning network. The WSR-57 was designed in 1957 by Dewey Soltow using World War II technology, using modified versions of those used by
United States Navy aircraft. In accordance with the
Joint Electronics Type Designation System, it was designated
AN/FPS-41, as the 41st design of an Army-Navy fixed radar(pulsed) electronic device for searching. It provided only coarse reflectivity data and no velocity data, which made it extremely difficult to predict tornadoes. As the network of WSR-57 radars aged, some were replaced with
WSR-74S models of similar performance but with better reliability. WSR-57 operators sometimes had to scramble for spare parts no longer manufactured in this country. The WSR-57 radars were gradually replaced by the Weather Surveillance Radar - 1988, Doppler,
WSR-88D, which NOAA named the
NEXRAD network. The last WSR-57 radar in the United States was decommissioned on December 2, 1996. ==Radar properties==