Checkboard,
In my experience weather radars do not detect
dry snow, ice, or hail.
Correct me if I am incorrect, my understanding for this is that the return on radar is due to the water being excited by the radar energy and reflecting the incoming beam.
I have used weather radar to navigate at night in the past, using the coastline depicted on the screen.
The method you suggest works for the descent, but when flying S&L or with a reduced RoD in the terminal area it is providing useless information with regard to weather avoidance, and is displaying "too much" terrain information (terrain that aircraft will clear). For it to be effective, you need to be clear of weather, and changing the tilt every time to match the aircrafts flight path. It does draw a pretty picture of built up areas and high rise buildings around the airport.
