An improved knowledge of the hydrometeorology of the mountainous Ardennes catchments will ultimately lead to improved real-time forecasts for the Meuse river. The Meuse fulfills important functions for the water supply of Belgium and The Netherlands. It is therefore of significant societal relevance to develop strategies to mitigate the impact of floods and droughts associated with the discharge regime of the Meuse river. The Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (IRM) recently installed a C-band Doppler weather radar near the village of Wideumont (539 m.a.s.l.) in the southern Ardennes area. The radar performs volume scans of the 3D structure of the rainfall field every 5 min out to a distance of 240 km (non Doppler mode) or (120 km Doppler mode). We recently started a joint research project to study the potential of the Wideumont radar to estimate rainfall for hydrological purposes. Here we report on some preliminary investigations regarding radar-gauge comparisons over the Ourthe catchment for several typical rainfall events that have occured since 2001. Two aspects that we particularly pay attention to are the vertical profile of reflectivity (VPR) and the attenuation correction problem.