Live weather radar from the Vegas GP five minute prior to the race. Expect rain the entire qualifying period, except maybe the end of Q3. US weather radar is impressive. Will we actually see them use the monsoon tyres?

For those not used to looking at radar, green is light rain, and yellow and orange is moderate rainfall.

Hey all! With the weather looking to impact Qualifying, I thought I would give some additional context to the radar images going around.

There is currently an area of showers passing over much of the Las Vegas area, including the track (star in first image). This area of showers is sliding to the east, and should clear out of the track in 20 minutes or so.

However, the radar reflectivity values here are much higher than what is reaching the surface! The yellows and oranges here would imply moderate to heavy rainfall, but a personal weather station connected to the Weather Underground network near the Paddock is reporting rainfall rates of only 0.01"/hr (.025mm/hr). There is a layer of strong dry air near the surface, and the radar is detecting rainfall before it falls into this layer and begins to evaporate. Only light rain will be reaching the surface, which means we don't have to worry about any Red Flags strictly due to heavy rain.

That being said, this light rain has been enough to get the track wet, and with cool temperatures and already low grip the track should remain slippery and in Intermediate conditions for the duration of Qualifying. However, don't expect any very intense rainfall during the session, just light rain slowly easing up as we progress towards Q2 and especially Q3.

Let me know if anyone has questions and I'll try my best to answer; I'll be sending updates in the replies to this thread as well!

Despite what you have seen or heard from other sources, it seems unlikely that this weekend will be heavily rain-impacted or extraordinarily cold. Las Vegas should get some rain overnight tonight into tomorrow morning, which may begin during FP2, but it will be light both in intensity and accumulation. A stray shower cannot be ruled out on Saturday, but the race should be dry. That being said, the combination of cool temps and street circuit should lead to low grip conditions all weekend.

I apologize for my terrible attempt at a graphic for the moon on the first slide. Hopefully you accept the model reflectivity graphics I threw together enough to make up for it.