negative values of maximum dBZ given by wrf.getvar

[Haolin Liu]

Dear all, 

I am using getvar 'mdbz' to obtain the maximum reflectivity variable of wrf. I am always getting values down to -30, is it normal to have a negative value of maximum reflectivity? Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Marco Miani]

Hi

Isn't radar reflective a log-based scale? If really so (not sure), a negative value would simply mean that reflective is 10 to the power of that negative value, i.e. something extremely small.

[Will H]

# Get DBZ for all times
    num_times = len(ncfile.dimensions["Time"])
    for time_idx in range(num_times):
        dbz_max = wrf.getvar(ncfile, "mdbz", timeidx=time_idx)
        if dbz_max.ndim == 3:
            dbz_max = dbz_max[0, :, :]

https://wrf-python.readthedocs.io/en/develop/plot.html