Search Is On For Wind-Blown Weather Balloon In Colorado Foothills

By Chris Spears

DENVER (CBS4) - When you hear the acronym BOLO (be on the lookout) it's usually associated with police talk, but for those living in the foothills near Boulder, today's BOLO is about a weather balloon.

Strong jet stream winds as high as 190 mph carried a weather balloon from Grand Junction to the Front Range Wednesday evening. The balloon popped somewhere over Eldora in the foothills of Boulder County and could be anywhere between there and west Boulder.

The picture above is similar to what would have floated down to the ground. It's called a radiosonde which is essentially a small box with weather instruments inside. It'd likely have a small orange parachute attached to it.

If found it can be returned via U.S. Mail to the National Weather Service using the instructions found here.

Weather balloons have been used to gather information about the atmosphere since the 1930s and play an important role in forecasting.

Click here to learn more about radiosondes.

Meteorologist Chris Spears travels weekly in the CBS4 Mobile Weather Lab reporting about Colorado's weather and climate. Check out his bio, connect with him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter @ChrisCBS4.