Most modern radar units, especially those doppler designs, have a weather mode.
Weather mode means that the radar points slight upward instead of across land and also is more sensitive picking up water particles in the air.
In particular (pun intended) the radar can identify nasty weather systems like thunderstorms from many miles out, our own radar a B&G 20+ 4G unit, can detect storms as far as 36Nm away.
This allows time for planning, course adjustment or even heaving-too.