It's a bird...it's a plane...it's a car?

Doppler radar has been known to detect things other than rain from time to time. For example: migrating birds, dust particles, etc. But early this morning, the National Weather Service doppler radar out of Chicago detected cars traveling along interstates 80 and 55! Remember, radar is able to detect things that move towards and away from it. Early this morning there was a strong temperature inversion that formed just above the ground which caused the radar beams to be re-directed downward instead of out. Pretty cool, huh?

To learn more about how radar works, click here!
(image courtesy of the Chicago NWS)