Bay Area

New Weather Radar for Public Safety Response Part of Bay Area radar system, led by Sonoma, to be installed on Mount Barnabe

Extreme weather systems, such as atmospheric rivers, have hit California with increasing frequency in recent years. The average damage from floods caused by atmospheric rivers in California is now over $1 billion per year. Marin County has experienced its share of these intense storms and the damages are both costly and disruptive.

Published

4 years ago

March 13, 2023

Oakland Post

San Rafael, CA – Extreme weather systems, such as atmospheric rivers, have hit California with increasing frequency in recent years. The average damage from floods caused by atmospheric rivers in California is now over $1 billion per year. Marin County has experienced its share of these intense storms and the damages are both costly and disruptive. In times of emergency, accurate and timely forecasts are critical for cost-effective risk-based decisions regarding public safety response measures, infrastructure operations, and essential resource allocation.

The Marin County Department of Public Works (DPW) is collaborating with local, state and federal agencies, with Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) as the project manager, on weather radar installations at key locations across the greater San Francisco Bay Area. The result will be a regional weather prediction system that uses enhanced weather radar to track atmospheric rivers.

As part of a larger project managed by Sonoma County Water Agency, a new weather radar installation is expected to be installed on Mount Barnabe in West Marin, which will vastly improve emergency response and public safety measures for the entire Bay Area during atmospheric river events. The installation on Mount Barnabe would be similar to the one that was recently installed on Rocky Ridge in the East Bay (shown).

This public safety and emergency response improvement project is funded by grants from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The system, known as the Advanced Quantitative Precipitation Information (AQPI) project, includes two types of radar, X-band and C-band, which are being installed across various counties in the Bay Area. Five X-band radar installations will be placed in counties outside of Marin and a single C-band radar installation will be placed on top of County-owned Mount Barnabe in West Marin. The Mount Barnabe location currently has a MERA radio installation and a Marin County Fire Department lookout tower in proximity to the planned C-band radar installation, so electricity and internet connections are already in place.

An online community meeting was held February 15 to discuss the details of the project and answer questions for residents living in the vicinity of Mount Barnabe. The Marin County Board of Supervisors will consider SCWA’s proposed lease agreement for the Mount Barnabe site at the March 7 public meeting.

The C-band radar will be mounted about 10 feet above the ground on top of a 24-by-16-foot concrete pad. The 10-foot diameter golf ball shaped “radome” encloses and protects the radar antenna from the elements. To minimize visibility, the structure will be painted beige to better compliment the surrounding environment and blend in with the color tones of the hillside.

The C-band radar system uses a directional antenna to focus the beam in a specific direction, like how a lighthouse creates a narrow beam of light, and then scans vertically and horizontally to produce an image of the atmosphere. The radar will not exceed Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recommended radar levels for general population and is below all applicable regulatory standards. Also, because the radar will be placed 10 feet above the ground, the radar beam will be higher than the tallest person in the area.

Having a C-band radar on Mount Barnabe provides a clear view of the Pacific Ocean, which is where atmospheric rivers start. As storms hit land and move toward the Bay Area, the radar will track precipitation as it falls. The location on top of the mountain will also give great coverage of the populated areas of Marin. In Sonoma, Contra Costa, and San Mateo counties, the coverage of the new C-band radar installation will overlap with that of the X-band radars, giving all counties good coverage.

Both SCWA and the County of Marin have found the project to be exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements for additional environmental review. The determination was made because the project is proposed on a previously developed area with similar government facility land uses, and the resulting radar installation would not impact the quality of the location, nor result in any cumulative adverse effects upon the surrounding environment.

Permitting is anticipated to be finalized by SCWA by mid-2023, with radar installation occurring in the second half of 2023. The timeline for the $2 million effort on Mount Barnabe is driven by the requirement that grant funding be used by the end of 2023. The operation of the radar system will be transferred to the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, which is part of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

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Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

Published

5 days ago

September 7, 2026

Oakland Post

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Youth-Led Black August Event Brings Past to Present at East Oakland Boxing Association

The mission of Youth Alive! Is to “break the cycle of violence, heal trauma, and uplift a thriving community of leaders, to save lives in Oakland and beyond” by serving “as mentors, youth leaders, counselors, case managers, intervention specialists and violence interrupters,” working “to help violently wounded people heal themselves and their community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

August 29, 2026

Post News Group

Dawna Williams, EOBA executive director speaks to attendees at the Black August Eperience on Aug. 21. Photo courtesy of Carolyn Flynn of EOBA.

By Jana Lang Propel Youth Reporter

Youth-Led Black August Event Brings Past to Present at East Oakland Boxing Association

The East Oakland Boxing Association (EOBA) and Youth Alive! came together on Aug. 21 to share with their community all that Black August means to them.

Held on EOBA’s patio at 816 98th Ave. in Deep East Oakland, the two organizations hosted their second annual Black August Experience, featuring a food tasting, financial literacy and mindfulness workshops, and voter registration with the League of Women Voters Oakland (LWV).

Black August is known as a time to uphold the legacy of prisoners who protested their conditions by fasting, fighting, and educating themselves on the economic and political circumstances that contributed to their incarceration.

According to its website, “EOBA is a multi-service youth and community development hub that goes far beyond the ring. While rooted in the discipline of boxing, for nearly 40 years EOBA has also integrated robust programs in workforce development, food justice, afterschool enrichment, financial literacy, mentorship, and wellness.”.

The mission of Youth Alive! Is to “break the cycle of violence, heal trauma, and uplift a thriving community of leaders, to save lives in Oakland and beyond” by serving “as mentors, youth leaders, counselors, case managers, intervention specialists and violence interrupters,” working “to help violently wounded people heal themselves and their community.”

Through Coro California, another leadership organization serving young people across the state for 80 years, they gained a broader understanding of Black August.

EOBA Executive Director Dawna Williams spoke about how much she learned about Black August from the youth who created it. “I let them educate me,” she said. Instead of talking about prison reform and mass incarceration, Williams and youth interns found that Black August meant so much more. “We would have done a disservice if we had just focused on who the people were and what their situation was…We tried to take their message from back in the day and make it relevant to the young people today. What do they need to know?”

Youth interns created and placed posters around the patio to help participants understand how traditional Black foodways, civic engagement, financial literacy, and the power of education are relevant to Black resistance today.

An EOBA member described Black August with Youth ALIVE! as “a whole vibe. “This year we added the Fun Zone for the kids, because you really cannot go wrong with a Fun Zone. I also loved seeing everyone chillin’ in the outdoor lounge, catching some Vitamin D and just enjoying a Friday evening together.”

The food tasting, a popular event from last year, featured traditional Black foods such as black-eyed peas, johnny cakes, and fried chicken. Led by Williams, the tasting included a talk about how these traditional foods were made and why they are forms of Black resilience.

The “‘Plate of History’ was a favorite of the online writers. “Fun, educational, and did I mention delicious? Our Taste of History cook, Angela Southall, served up some good eats while connecting food to history and culture.”

The writer also commended the “League of Women Voters Oakland for their civic leadership and for getting our young people informed, ready, and registered to vote.”

Overall, it was a “good Friday event in East Oakland,” the writer said.

Upcoming Black August events: Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), will host “Black August: The Arc of Liberation” at Oakland City Hall on Sat. Aug. 29, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The websites for East Oakland Boxing Association, Youth Alive! and CORO are sources for this report.

Jana Lang is an Oakland resident, teacher, gardener and poet participating in the Propel News Initiative.