Spy Balloons And The Weekend Forecast

Saturday Night Forecast Update for February 4th

Spy Balloon Or Weather Balloon?

Many of us watched Today as the suspected “Chinese Spy Balloon” was shot down earlier this afternoon. China was saying it was not a spy balloon, but a civilian weather research balloon. Let’s take a look at a common weather balloon as compared to the balloon that is making waves in the news and meteorology community. A weather balloon is typically around 6 feet in diameter and carries a small payload (smaller than a shoe box) to measure temperature profiles, wind, pressure, etc. It can expand as much as 20 feet as it goes higher into the atmosphere where the pressure exerted on it is lower. The weather balloon will pop in many cases and safely and slowly fall back to earth via the attached parachute.

The weather balloon payload has a postage paid label with a return address on it so that it can be mailed back to the national weather service in the event you are lucky enough to find one. Only a small percentage are found each year.

SPY BALLOON?

In comparison, the balloon we were hearing so much about was 90 feet in diameter and carried a payload that was as much as 3 buses long. Wow! This was a much larger balloon by far and the need for a payload that large is questionable for sure!

As you can see, the comparison is in the huge difference and probably one that had officials doubting that it was a meteorological balloon at all.

Let’s move on to the weekend weather: 

Mostly cloudy skies through our day on Saturday will give way to more sunshine into Sunday as the weak upper level disturbance moves away from us overnight into tomorrow morning. We’ll start off cold in the morning but a southerly flow of winds will allow us to warm into the upper 50’s in the afternoon Sunday followed by mostly sunny skies and the lower 60’s on Monday. Rain will develop into the day on Tuesday and Wednesday looks very soggy.

TONIGHT:

Tonight, Partly cloudy and not as cold with lows in the upper 30’s. Light south winds 5 to 10 mph.

SUNDAY:

Starting off cold and breezy under mostly cloudy skies with the upper 30’s. Becoming partly sunny in the late morning and afternoon with pleasantly warmer conditions as temperatures rise to around 57-59 in the afternoon. Southeast winds around 5 to 10 mph.

NEXT WEEK:

We are looking at a very warm start to next week with highs up around 62° for Monday and Tuesday. Clouds will be off and on during the day on Monday but the rain is expected to hold off until Tuesday afternoon. The rain will likely continue into the day on Wednesday but the temperature will remain in the low 60s.

Thursday temperatures will also stay around 60° and that might usher in a chance for some storms as well. We could see a few storms mixing on in Tuesday night also and we will be keeping a close eye on that situation over the weekend. Monday night lows will only fall down to around 50° and Tuesday night lows will drop into the upper 40s.

The winds will come out of the south early in the week before transitioning back to the northwest maybe late in the week depending on it the next front stalls out or not. Models are hinting as some rain to return on Friday and colder air moving in around the same time.

Right now it looks like we could see some of the rain briefly change over to snow before ending overnight Friday. It will be cold as it looks now into next Saturday and Sunday. *This potential short lived event is over 5 days away so there is still some uncertainty as to its exact timing as well as any snow that may fall.

FINAL THOUGHT:

After the coldest Christmas in decades here in West Tennessee, warmer weather returned for the start of the new year, but some cooler weather will move in to wrap up the month and stick around into February.  The next chance for rain and storms is coming this next week No winter storms are currently in the forecast. You need to stay weather aware to changing weather patterns and monitor the forecasts closely. We got you covered in the WBBJ 7 Storm Team Weather Center as always.

For tips on preparing for the storms, click here. To download the WBBJ 7 Weather app, click here.

Brian Davis
Storm Team 7 Meteorologist
Twitter – @Brian7wbbj
Facebook – Briandaviswbbj
Email – Badavis@wbbjtv.com