Why does the radar sometimes show echoes that don look like rain?
Sometimes the refractive index of the air is such that the radar beam becomes “bent” and reflects the ground or ocean surface some distance away from the radar. This is known as Anomalous Propagation and occurs usually when there are strong temperature inversions present. Electronic processing of the returned signal usually detects the steadier reflections from ground clutter, but reflections from the waves on water are more likely to appear like true rain echoes. Near sunrise and sunset the radar antenna momentarily scans the sun. On occasions this can be seen as a pencil line radiating out from the centre of the image in the direction of the sun. Check the radar site information to see if your nearby radar image is affected by any interference.
