By Patty Blackburn
What goes up must come down and one of these weather balloons did come down – here in Lewisburg. It was discovered by Edith Eastep and Lisa Clark at Clark’s CPA Building on Nashville Highway. The box, which is partially Styrofoam and contains the instruments, is attached and on the box it states: “NOAA,” which stands for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “Harmless Weather Instrument.” The orange parachute is still intact and the string is very long. The balloon is the white pile of latex. It is not known just how large this balloon was since weather balloons, after being filled with helium or hydrogen, are 6.5 feet in diameter, but as they go into the atmosphere, they increase in size. Weather balloons have been known to be 33 feet in diameter before bursting.
Weather balloons are among the most important sources for data for weather models. These balloons carry a radiosonde, which is a package of instruments that measures temperature, humidity, pressure, and wind speed and direction at various altitudes as it rises into the atmosphere. A GPS antenna on the radiosonde tracks its location, allowing ground stations to calculate wind speed and direction to create forecasts and predict weather events. The balloons reach an altitude of around 60,000 to 105,000 feet before they burst, due to the low atmospheric pressure, causing them to descend with the radiosondes via parachutes. The mission of the weather balloon is to gather data during its ascent; once it bursts, its primary purpose is complete.
It’s not an everyday occurrence that a weather balloon lands on someone’s roof.