Weather Balloons Used to Capture Jet Stream Data

As we head into the colder months I was asked a perfect question by John, asking about how data about jet streams is captured. Just to start out I’ll give you a crash course about jet streams.

Jet streams are a band of wind in the upper atmosphere that flow at an extremely fast speed, somewhere around 120-180p mph but can be up to 250 mph. You can think of the jet stream as the coolant in a radiator, as it moves extremely cold air from around the poles to the mid-latitudes and brings the relatively warm air from the mid-latitudes back to the poles to keep air moving and keeping the cycle of convection going.

As you know, the later we get into the year we lose our excess heat by not receiving as much heat from the sun, therefore the jet stream has to go farther south to find the excess heat and we get cold fronts.

Now that the crash course is over I can explain how we determine its direction, location and speed. One way that we de-termine the characteristics of the upper atmosphere and the jet stream is by hundred and twenty or so National Weather Service offices around the country releasing weather balloons daily and in conjunction with weather reports from airports.

With all of this data we can get an extremely accurate image of the atmosphere and from there the data lines can be tracked and plotted to find the jet stream. This is the tried and true method that is used to find all sorts of patterns in the atmosphere, but we can also use our eyes in the sky, well more like eyes in space.

What I am talking about are satellites which can easily and accurately spot the jet stream and calculate its speed and direction, by looking at the clouds that get pulled along by the fast moving wind. The temperature of the jet stream can be calculated by the weather balloons or it can be seen by thermal imagers on the satellites to accurately and quickly read the temperature and any other changes with the system.

Even though we are in October we can expect it to be a jacket in the morning and shorts in the afternoon kind of week with highs in the mid 80’s forcible future with winds around 5-10mph from the south east. There is some astronomical news to report: on Wednesday the 7th we can see the Draconids meteor shower, which will be most visible just after nightfall, and even though the 7th is the peak you still might be able to see some on the 6th and the 8th as this shower lasts a few days.

Send your weather questions to tomy3290@gmail.com.