Is a 60 GHz wireless bridge reliable in rain and snow?

The rain-fade stories mostly come from multi-kilometer links. The one measured report behind this brief comes from an operator at about 650 ft, who saw roughly 600 Mbps instead of 1,000 in torrential rain. That is a slowdown, not an outage. A 60 GHz link at house-to-barn distances has range to spare, and the spare margin is what absorbs rain.

Snow is different. Owners in heavy-snow areas report that the problem is wet snow building up on the radome, not attenuation in the air. MikroTik says it designed the nRAY's form factor so that snow would not stick. Angle the radios so snow sheds, and don't count on the 60 GHz carrier alone.

The Wave Pico, Wave Nano, UniFi Building Bridge and MikroTik's Cube kits all carry a 5 GHz backup radio that takes over when 60 GHz fades. The airFiber 60 LR and the nRAY do not, which is why this brief ranks the airFiber below the Wave Pico for a snow climate even though it is the stronger radio. Test the fallback after installation, not just on the spec sheet.