La Porte radar, live from the Weather Service.
A zoomable radar map with the Weather Service’s storm warnings drawn on it, the radar loops that cover La Porte County and Lake Michigan, and what the colors mean.
Radar map
Radar: NOAA’s Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor base reflectivity, which blends every nearby Weather Service radar. Warnings: the National Weather Service’s storm-based warnings for Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, drawn where the Weather Service drew them. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Watch the last hour.
Each loop is a Weather Service radar’s own picture of roughly the past hour. La Porte County sits between two radars: North Webster, Indiana (KIWX), about 55 miles southeast, and Chicago (KLOT), about 70 miles west.
The loop loads as you scroll down, to save your data.
What the colors mean.
The colors show how much rain, snow or hail the radar beam is bouncing off, in dBZ. These are rough guides for the Weather Service’s standard colors.
- Blues (about 5 to 15 dBZ): very light. Drizzle, light snow, or rain that isn’t reaching the ground.
- Greens (about 20 to 30 dBZ): light to moderate rain, or steady snow in winter.
- Yellows and orange (about 35 to 45 dBZ): moderate to heavy rain.
- Reds (about 50 to 60 dBZ): heavy rain and thunderstorms. Small hail is possible.
- Pink, purple and white (about 65 dBZ and up): very heavy rain, and hail is likely.
Three things radar can’t tell you
- Whether it’s reaching the ground. Radar sees rain and snow in the air. On a dry day, light echoes can dry up before they land.
- Everything close to the ground. The farther a storm is from the radar, the higher above the ground the beam passes. Near La Porte it’s already several thousand feet up, so drizzle and shallow lake-effect snow can look lighter than they are, or not show up at all.
- Whether you should take shelter. A warning does that. If a Tornado Warning covers you, go to your safe place now; don’t wait to see it on radar. Alerts and what to do.
- La Porte weather right now: current conditions, the next 24 hours and the 7-day forecast.
- Lake Michigan today: waves, swim risk and the beach cam.
- Storm Patterns: tornadoes, derechos and lake-effect snow, explained.
- The Weather Service’s own radar viewer ↗