Up, Up, and Away

Community Members recently went to the National Weather Service Building on the northwest side of Springfield. Dan Gaede, the head Meteorologist, shared many interesting facts about how our local, regional, and global weather data is obtained. Everywhere around the world at the exact same time a weather balloon is released into the atmosphere to gather data. In Springfield our balloons are launched at 6:00am and 6:00pm. All the data is entered into a computer system and is shared globally. This helps with establishing weather patterns, fronts, hurricanes, and seasonal forecasts. Dan told us that there are regional, state, and foreign forecasts available to all meteorologists and they are able to use that data to come up with their own local forecasts. This explains why different news stations here in Springfield may have a different forecast because it depends on what models they use and how they interpret them. The tour provided an incredible amount of current information and also about how weather forecasts have changed over the years.