BOISE, Idaho — The radar site south of Boise, which provides weather images for southwest Idaho and southeast Oregon, is offline while crews work on upgrades on the radar.
To do that though, crews had to some heavy lifting. For the first time ever on Friday, the 8,000-pound radar dome came down so crews could refurbish key components of the radar.
“The last the site had the dome off was at installation in 1995,” Travis Mayer, with the National Weather Service, explained. "This is quite a huge project to be out here today, I'm really excited to see it come off and get that life up in the system."
Early in the morning, crews started preparing to lift the large dome off of the radar so a new pedestal could be installed. The pedestal is key for the whole radar to work properly.
"The pedestal holds the motors that spin the dish and supports the elevation arms that raise and lower the dish," said Mayer.
The team locked in and secured all the systems for the heavy lift. After two decades of hovering above the desert landscape, the dome prepared for a slow trip from the tower.
WATCH BELOW: Timelapse of Boise's weather radar dome being taken down for maintenance
Once the dome was off, crews then turned its focus to the pedestal upgrade.
"With these new gears and motors it will increase the reliability of this system," Mayer said.
The radar dish itself remains the same, but the infrastructure upgrade beneath the dome will make sure the system will stay up and running for years.
"We are still going to get the same weather data at the office that we did before, it just increases the reliability of the system," said Mayer.
The system that will continue to provide radar data for several government agencies, including the National weather service.
While it's getting a little rest on the ground, the dome will be back on top of the tower by Friday night.
The project is expected to be completed within the next two weeks, then southern Idaho and southeastern Oregon's radar will be up and running again.