Sen. Katie Britt is throwing her support behind a push to provide better weather radar coverage to an area encompassing eight counties in Southwestern Alabama.

On Thursday, Britt posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter:

“Ensuring that there is adequate radar coverage in West Alabama will enable us to keep citizens safe when disaster strikes. I’m proud to work with @RepTerriSewell, @Robert_Aderholt and our entire congressional delegation to fight for this critical priority.”

Alabama has National Weather Service radars in or near Huntsville, Birmingham, Tuskegee, Ozark and Mobile, which provide coverage for wide stretches of the state.

But as WSFA explains, much of Sumter, Greene, Marengo, Perry, Dallas, Wilcox, Clarke and Monroe counties is not as well covered because of the distance from the existing radars.

Radar beams rise as distance from the tower increases, meaning the beam is higher as the beam travels farther. For those areas not close to a radar, the beam may identify large tornadoes at high altitudes, but miss low topped storms until they are already spinning on the ground.

National Weather Service Director Ken Graham said it would take as long as four years, spending up to $25 million, for the federal government to build a new radar for west Alabama.

Sewell told the station “we’re doing everything we can” to close the radar gap.