National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

A Significant Spring Storm Impacting the Central U.S. This Week

A significant late-season winter storm will bring an expanding area of heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain to the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest. Further south, severe thunderstorms are expected from the southern Plains into the southern Great Lakes. A multi-day excessive rain and flooding event will impact the Ozarks into the Ohio Valley through Saturday. Read More >

Recently, we recorded an upper-air launch at our office. Much of the edited video is from a first person perspective, giving unique insight into how our meteorologists launch the weather balloon. It was breezy the day the radiosonde was launched, adding some excitement to the mix.

We normally launch the balloon twice a day. The sounding, as it is called, is released around 4am/pm or 5am/pm depending on whether daylight savings time is in effect or not.

Example output from our most recent sounding:

Most recent sounding from KRAP Upper-Air site