Thread by @JackSillin

Following severe storms through the Southeast this week, it's been hard not to notice some large gaps in radar coverage of the area.

Overlaying demographic data with radar coverage data, it's hard not to notice how the areas most underserved by NEXRAD are also majority-Black.

Of course, there are many areas across the country that lack good low-level NEXRAD coverage and are majority white. Plains, Midwest, west, Northeast, etc.

But it's hard for me not look at this map and think that the pattern of coverage in the South specifically is coincidental.

https://twitter.com/justin_wx_/status/1372962267558518784

Many have pointed out that one possible explanation for this pattern is the relatively high Black share of rural populations in the South.

Here's low-level radar coverage and pop density. Recognizable pattern but does it explain all the variance? Idk

Here's low-level coverage by Black absolute population for the crowd that would prefer this as a metric.

Clearly population density is the biggest determinant of radar placement, but I'm not convinced that it is the only determinant.

As with the allocation of any govt resource, politics comes into play

Whenever scarce resources are allocated, there are tough tradeoffs and unintended consequences and in the US/esp the South, those historically tend to fall disproportionately on Black Americans.

So I'm skeptical NEXRAD placement entirely escapes that pattern.

My one initial map and followups are insufficient to establish a causal relationship with any certainty. There is much more work to be done here.

Perhaps you're reading this and looking for a research project. If so- take the idea and run with it! Important to investigate.