At the height of misinformation, some conspiracy theorists are raising doubts about straight lines that can be seen on various weather maps, suggesting that someone is manipulating the weather, or other bizarre ideas. These strange signs, quite common, have an explanation.
Some meteorological maps, such as those that report precipitation, show strange, very straight lines that, clearly, do not correspond to a manifestation of rain due to the shape they adopt, very different from those patches of clouds that move. .
We see an example of this in a climate map shared by the Valencian media outlet À Punt Oratge on November 3, in which it reported on the evolution of precipitation that, at that time, was moving further north.
On this map, we see how within the sea we can see a few stripes that change size but remain very straight and pointing to the same place, as if it were a laser beam. Already in the tweet itself, the media tells us: «Ignore the straight lines, they are not rain data. See the orange/red dots and the shifting of the precipitation spots.
But, given that many people do not know what these stripes are, and given that from the middle they do not explain what they are but only indicate that they should be ignored, this is enough for many people related to conspiracy to start coming up with crazy theories. reminiscent of the phenomenon of plastic snow during Filomena. In this case, conspiracy theorists can point to the alleged “HAARP project” causing DANA artificially, to chemtrails or similar resources.
But no, it’s not that, and these lines have a simple explanation.
Network interference
These signals have a name, and they are called “false echoes.” As meteorological experts explain in the media, these are interferences that have been occurring for a long time. These interferences are produced by WiFi or mobile network antennas, which may have been placed too close to weather radars, whose signal collides with that of these networks.
From À Punt Oratge they clarify: «In some cases they are other Wi-Fi antennas that work at similar frequencies and the radar detects them. “Those frequencies should be free.” They say “in some cases” because not only network antennas produce this interference, but it can also be produced by the blades of wind farms, smoke, ash, sand, or even the sun or sea waves.
Some of these antennas have been placed legally, but other devices have not, operating at wavelengths that should be reserved for the Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET). They are able to enter these signals that should be protected by disabling the DFS (dynamic frequency selection) function, a mechanism that serves to ensure the protection of radars operating in the 5250-5350 MHz and 5470-5725 MHz bands, including weather radars in the 5600-5650 MHz band.
As explained from ASUSDFS “is a function of using 5 GHz WiFi frequencies that are typically reserved for radars, such as military radars, satellite communications, and weather radars.”
On the Internet there are easily accessible documents from European organizations that explain this phenomenon, which also serves to defend the need to protect the waves used by meteorological radars. We can find the technical report of the European Commission called: “An experimental evaluation of the dynamic frequency selection (DFS) algorithm for the coexistence of weather radars and WLAN/RLAN networks in the 5 GHz band”, as well as the study “5 GHz RLAN interference on European weather radars” by Philippe Tristant, Frequency Manager at Météo France.
