National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Excessive Rainfall Possible for the Gulf Coast and Florida; October Heat Wave in California

A slow moving front will be the focus area for heavy to excessive rainfall and a threat for flash/urban flooding across parts of the Gulf Coast into central/northern Florida early this week. Abnormally hot, potentially record-breaking, temperatures will continue for southern California and stretch north toward the Bay Area and Central Valley 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