With Sandy in Mind, National Weather Service Launching Extra Weather Balloons

 With the threat of a catastrophically huge storm looming (Sandy) the National Weather Service is doing all it can to come up with the most accurate forecast possible, including launching extra weather balloons through the lower 48 states.  The Quad Cities local office is now launching 4 weather balloons per day instead of the normal 2.  These instruments collect data such as temperature, humidity, wind speed etc all the way up to about 90,000 feet in the atmosphere!  The data collected is sent by a radio signal back to the office, and eventually ends up being digested and used in many ways to help with the forecast. 

 In the QC, meteorologists will be sending up the extra balloons through Monday morning while folks in the East and South will continue the extra balloons through Tuesday, when Sandy is expected to make landfall somewhere along the East Coast!  Here are some pics from today's launch around lunchtime! 

See the doppler radar in this shot!