A system and method for applying an adaptive adjustment or taper to an electronically scanned array (ESA) weather radar based on feedback from the weather radar. To minimize ground clutter and enable the ESA to display hazardous weather phenomena, the system adaptively adjusts amplitude and phase of ESA elements to adjust the far field pattern shape and sidelobes to maintain a desirable signal to clutter ratio. The system identifies ground clutter as a strong ground return over several azimuths depending on the radar beamwidth. Once the system IDs the ground clutter, it adaptively adjusts on receive for for the upcoming azimuths. The system selectively suppresses sidelobe echoes while maintaining the signal to noise (SNR) for weather targets. The system adaptively adjusts in real time as well as adjusting using precomputed historically accurate tapers stored in memory.