11/19/2020
This year's wildfire season was one of the busiest we've seen - when an order comes in for the US National Weather Service IMET program, that takes first priority. We've shipped hundreds of products overnight to support these crews while they battle fires on the front lines.
Weather offices world wide launch weather balloons at 0000 UTC and 1200 UTC every day. These balloons carry radiosondes that return temperature, humidity, and wind data to ground tracking stations. This data is used by meteorologists to understand the state of the atmosphere above their area of concern as well as in weather models across the globe. IMETs use a portable version of this, about the size of a lunch box, to get similar data on wildfires. Here is an example of the data returned by one of these portable radiosondes on the Red Salmon Complex in northern California on 8/30/2020. The radiosonde soared to over 80,000 feet and provided critical data for fire weather and smoke forecasts. US National Weather Service Billings Montana US National Weather Service Eureka California US National Weather Service Fort Worth Texas US National Weather Service Elko NV U.S. Forest Service - Six Rivers National Forest