National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Heavy Rain and Flash Flooding in the West; Heat Expands in the Central U.S.

Monsoonal moisture will produce showers and thunderstorms with heavy rain over parts of the Southwest, Great Basin, and Central Rockies through Monday. Flash flooding is possible, especially in and around burn scars and in areas of steep terrain. Heat will persist across the Central U.S. early this week, spreading into the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic later this week. 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