Clear and sunny skies may be what the general public desires, but WHO-TV’s meteorologists are ready for an old-fashioned storm to show viewers what their new technology can do.

The NBC affiliate’s viewers recently may have noticed some new graphic elements during its weather segments. Now, WHO-TV’s meteorologists report on current atmospheric conditions by panning over a satellite picture of Polk County and its landmarks to show a 3-D representation of weather patterns. The new look comes from software and updates to the station’s 2-year-old Mega Doppler Radar, an investment that the station hopes will level the playing field between it and the top-rated newscasts of CBS affiliate, KCCI.

“We will be able to track the storm and go inside the storm in a way that we’ve never been able to do before,” said Mark Ginther, WHO-TV’s news director. “This will be one of the largest purchases that our company will make for this television station this year.”

WHO-TV purchased the technology package and about a month ago, but wasn’t allowed to use it until about a week and a half ago, after it was officially unveiled at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas, according to Ed Wilson, the station’s chief meteorologist.

Wilson said severe weather will be a good test for the system to show what it capable of, and he is expecting it to make a big difference in how the weather team reports storms.

“I’ve been here 17 years, and this is probably one of the most significant pieces of equipment we’ve had in to really show what’s going on,” Wilson said. “It’s a great tool that we’re using with our existing radar to show the different layers of the storm, and once the storm has gone through, we can use that data to show our viewers things like why hail formed and why that part of the storm had so much energy.”

The software, which complements the station’s million-watt Mega Doppler, came with a premium price tag, according to Mark Ginther, WHO-TV’s news director. He did not disclose its actual cost, but hinted that it was somewhere around $500,000.

The station’s owner, The New York Times Co., picked up the tab, Ginther said, with the expectation that the investment would help WHO-TV “level the playing field” with KCCI.

But in the competition for viewers, KCCI-TV Chief Meteorologist John McLaughlin says equipment takes a back seat to expertise.

“The bottom line is that both KCCI and WHO have excellent weather technology, and what it’s really coming down to now is how much do the guys in front of the camera really know? And there’s nobody better than our team,” McLaughlin said. “Having the guys who can break down the technology and interpret it during crisis is what really matters.”

KCCI uses a 250,000-watt Super Doppler radar system that it purchased in 1997, which McLaughlin said will remain in use for probably another year or two, when the station hopes to buy the “next wave” of technology.

“There’s an emerging technology out there called dual polarization that we’re looking at now,” he said. “It can look inside a cloud or a storm and determine what is hail and ice. We are already beginning to budget for that. I said why spend now on our Doppler when it could be outdated in six months?”

McLaughlin said the dual polarization system is currently being used at only one station in the country, and he wants KCCI to be the second one to purchase it within the next two years. He said the new system can detect precisely how much rain an area had, and would produce better snowfall and rainfall predictions.

“That’s the wave of the future, and I’m trying to take our people to that level in the next couple of years,” he said.

For the time being, KCCI has made some recent updates to its technology, which include a new weather graphics computer, a new radar display, more SchoolNet weather stations located at schools throughout the viewing area and additional live cameras across Central Iowa.

For severe weather, the station updated its Doppler weather and display software, which it calls VIPIR, Volumetric Imaging and Processing of Integrated Radar. KCCI is now tied to eight radar units outside Greater Des Moines, including ones in Omaha, Cedar Rapids and Kansas City and Columbia, Mo.

“We had an option a while back, when we heard that Channel 13 was buying the Mega Doppler, to invest in our own technology as well, but increasing your power really does not make a big difference to the viewer, as you would have with being able to show them more angles on a storm like you can show from other radars.”

McLaughlin said he often travels around the country and sometimes internationally to train other stations’ meteorologists and speak at national meetings. When people from other stations’ meteorologists ask for his opinion on new technology, he cautions them to make sure their priorities are straight before buying anything.

“You have all this million-dollar equipment out there with people wondering what they should invest in, and I tell them that you buy the best that you can afford, but your meteorologist looking at it has to be able to tell where the tornado is coming from. It comes back to the expertise of the person sitting in that chair.”