National Weather Service In Fort Worth Part Of Effort To Track Hurricane Dorian
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - The National Weather Service office in Fort Worth is launching extra weather balloons to help with the forecast for Hurricane Dorian.
The team usually sends up two balloons per day, but now they'll be sending up four.
"When we have a hurricane we need that data, but we need it at a much higher resolution," said meteorologist Tom Bradshaw.
The storm may be thousands of miles away, but Bradshaw says what's happening right now over Texas plays a key role in where the storm moves next.
"The storm systems that are basically going to steer Dorian are actually coming out of the western and central parts of the U.S. into the Southeast," Bradshaw said.
About two dozen other National Weather Service offices across the central and eastern U.S. are also sending up the extra balloons daily.
Meteorologists attach a specialized piece of equipment called a radiosonde to the balloon.
It sends back information about wind, temperature and humidity.
The balloons float up to around 100,000 feet, sending back data every second as they rise.
Once the balloon pops, a parachute takes the radiosonde back to the ground where it can be sent back to The National Weather Service.