Downloading RIDGE Radar Images

Unlike the old radar display, "right clicking" on a RIDGE radar image will only allow you to copy or "save to the clipboard" the very top layer, based upon the selected overlays. In the toggle overlay section, just below the radar image, the right most selected overlay is the top image.

In the example above, the "Legend" graphic is the top image selected. Trying to save the RIDGE image will only save the legend graphic. In the toggle overlay example (below), the "Cities" overlay is the top graphic and the only one that can be saved by selecting the image.

A typical RIDGE radar view is comprised of seven individual images layered on top of each other through the use of style sheets. Except for the topography, these images are a "gif" format with a white background that has been made transparent. (The topography image is a compressed jpeg image.) To reproduce the RIDGE radar image, each layer needs to be captured and stacked on top of each other.

But it is not as bad as it sounds as fortunately, for any one radar site, once a copy of the overlays are obtained, only the radar image and the "Warnings" and "Legend" overlays change. The "Highways", "Topo", "Counties", "Rivers", and "Cities" overlays only needed to be downloaded once.

At present, there are three ways to obtain images from the RIDGE radar.

Grunt method. Use the overlay toggles and "right click" on each layer to save it to the local computer. Remember, this only save the right most image as indicated by the toggle bar.
Screen Capture. Use the toggle overlays to configure the image then use a screen capture utility to save the image to the local computer. This saves the steps needed to stack the images onto of each other in a graphics program and is also how all the RIDGE images used in this section were obtained.
Download the individual files. All RIDGE radar images are downloadable and all that is needed is the URL. The table (below) provides the paths to each image. For the radar image, legend, or warnings images, the most recent graphic available ends in "_0.gif". For example, the most recent radar image for the Fort Worth Doppler radar is...

radar.weather.gov/ridge/RadarImg/N0R/FWS_N0R_0.gif

To view and retrieve the 20 most recent radar images then the URL is...

radar.weather.gov/ridge/RadarImg/N0R/FWS/

The filename format for these recent images is: xxx_YYYYMMDD_hhmm_N??.gif, where
xxx - Radar site ID
YYYY - year
MM - month
DD - day
hh - hour
mm - minutes
N?? - image ID (N0R, N0S, etc)

The paths to the RIDGE graphics/images are radar.weather.gov/ridge (then)
Directory	Image ID	Directory (for past images) or Filename (for current image)	Legend
/RadarImg	/N0R	/xxx	Short Range images (views out to 124 nmi) N0R: Base Reflectivity N0S: Storm Relative Motion N0V: Base Velocity N1P: One-Hour Precipitation NCR: Composite Reflectivity NTP: Storm Total Precipitation Long Range image (view out to 248 nmi) N0Z: Base Reflectivity xxx: Radar site ID The file name format for past images is as follows: xxx_YYYYMMDD_hhmm_N??.gif YYYY - year MM - month DD - day hh - hour mm - minutes N?? - image ID (N0R, N0S, etc)
	/N0R	/xxx_N0R_0.gif
	/N0S	/xxx
	/N0S	/xxx_N0S_0.gif
	/N0V	/xxx
	/N0V	/xxx_N0V_0.gif
	/N0Z	/xxx
	/N0Z	/xxx_N0Z_0.gif
	/N1P	/xxx
	/N1P	/xxx_N1P_0.gif
	/NCR	/xxx
	/NCR	/xxx_NCR_0.gif
	/NTP	/xxx
	/NTP	/xxx_NTP_0.gif

The paths to the RIDGE overlays are radar.weather.gov/ridge (then)
Directory	Overlay Directory	Directory (for short range) or Directory (for long range)	Filename
/Overlays	/Topo	/Short	/xxx_Topo_Short.jpg
	/Topo	/Long	/xxx_Topo_Long.jpg
	/County	/Short	/xxx_County_Short.gif
	/County	/Long	/xxx_County_Long.gif
	/Rivers	/Short	/xxx_Rivers_Short.gif
	/Highways	/Short	/xxx_Highways_Short.gif
	/Highways	/Long	/xxx_Highways_Long.gif
	/Cities	/Short	/xxx_City_Short.gif
	/Cities	/Long	/xxx_City_Long.gif

The paths to the NWS severe weather warnings overlays are radar.weather.gov/ridge (then)
Directory	Directory	Directory (for past images) or Filename (for current image)	Legend
/Warnings	/Short	/xxx	xxx: Radar site ID The file name format for past images is as follows: xxx_YYYYMMDD_hhmm_N??_Warnings.gif YYYY - year MM - month DD - day hh - hour mm - minutes N?? - image ID (N0R, N0S, etc)
	/Short	/xxx_Warnings_0.gif
	/Long	/xxx
	/Long	/xxx_Warnings_0.gif

The paths to the RIDGE legend overlays are radar.weather.gov/ridge then
Directory	Image ID	Directory (for past images) or Filename (for current image)	Legend
/Legend	/N0R	/xxx	Short Range images (views out to 124 nmi) N0R: Base Reflectivity N0S: Storm Relative Motion N0V: Base Velocity N1P: One-Hour Precipitation NCR: Composite Reflectivity NTP: Storm Total Precipitation Long Range image (view out to 248 nmi) N0Z: Base Reflectivity xxx: Radar site ID The file name format for past images is as follows: xxx_YYYYMMDD_hhmm_N??_Legend.gif YYYY - year MM - month DD - day hh - hour mm - minutes N?? - image ID (N0R, N0S, etc)
	/N0R	/xxx_N0R_Legend_0.gif
	/N0S	/xxx
	/N0S	/xxx_N0S_Legend_0.gif
	/N0V	/xxx
	/N0V	/xxx_N0V_Legend_0.gif
	/N0Z	/xxx
	/N0Z	/xxx_N0Z_Legend_0.gif
	/N1P	/xxx
	/N1P	/xxx_N1P_Legend_0.gif
	/NCR	/xxx
	/NCR	/xxx_NCR_Legend_0.gif
	/NTP	/xxx
	/NTP	/xxx_NTP_Legend_0.gif

Radars ID's by Site

Radars ID's by State

Next: The GIS(t) of it all