One of our most critical programs at the National Weather Service in Amarillo is the upper air program.  Our office is one of 92 National Weather Service stations and one of over 800 stations in the world that launches weather balloons twice each day.  The data collected by the weather balloons are ingested into computer forecast models where equations are run using the data.  The end result is a computer model forecast, but the human forecaster ultimately determines whether or not the output is reasonable.  Therefore, the vital data collected by the weather balloons allows forecasters to produce a forecast for today and/or several days in advance.

Each station around the world launches the balloons at the same time to provide a snapshot of the three-dimensional state of the atmosphere.  At Amarillo, the balloons are launched at 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. during daylight saving time and 5:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. during standard time.  Occasionally, special balloon launches may be requested, particularly if severe weather is expected.  Another interesting scenario occurs when a hurricane poses a threat to the United States coast.  6-hourly special launches may be needed from select upper air stations in order to allow forecasters at the National Hurricane Center to more accuarately forecast where a tropical cyclone may move.  Most recently, in fact, almost two-thirds of the upper air stations in the continental U.S. launched special flights every six hours for two days as Hurricane Irene approached the coast.  All of this data was ingested into computer models and allowed forecasters at the NHC to produce precise track forecasts with a high degree of confidence.

This tour will give you a detailed look at how meteorologists at the NWS in Amarillo take upper air observations.