Budget cutbacks ground weekend weather balloons

Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2005 | 9:45 a.m.

Twice a day, every day of the year, meteorologists with the National Nuclear Security Administration launch weather balloons that send vital information to National Weather Service forecasters in the Las Vegas office.

That weather information link between the Nevada Test Site and the Weather Service office in town was disrupted Friday night.

After 49 years of providing the information to the Weather Service, the National Nuclear Security Administration has stopped releasing weather balloons on weekends.

Federal funding cuts in both the Energy Department and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration budgets have grounded the balloons on the weekends, officials said, saving an estimated $26,000 or more annually.

However, the information from those weather balloons helps weather forecasters in Las Vegas predict conditions in Southern California, Southern Nevada, northwestern Arizona and southwestern Utah, Weather Service meteorologist Kim Runk said.

"Temporarily, the weekend flights have been suspended," Runk said Tuesday. While the Weather Service and the NNSA are being cooperative and seeking a way to restore the balloon flights, Runk said he had no idea how long they would be grounded.

Weather balloons gather temperature, wind speed and humidity, providing a three-dimensional snapshot of the atmosphere from the ground up.

Meteorologists in Las Vegas operate the office 24 hours a day year round.

"We're all scrambling to see how we can make up for this shortfall," Runk said.

A balloon launched at Desert Rock on the Test Site could warn forecasters about an approaching storm or if there is enough moisture in incoming clouds to warrant issuing a flood watch.

"It's important for us," forecaster Charlie Schlott said. "A lack of information endangers people in this area.

"It's like there's no weather on the weekends, but there is," Schlott said.

The Desert Rock balloons had provided information to scientists conducting above-ground and underground nuclear weapons experiments since 1956, security administration spokesman Kevin Rohr said.

Called upper air soundings, information gathered from the weather balloons that is released all over the world every 12 hours, helps forecasters track conditions in the air.

"With tight budgets and no site activity on weekends anymore, there is no need for us to launch the balloons," Rohr said of the Test Site where nuclear weapons experiments were halted in September 1992 by order of then President George H.W. Bush.

The NNSA still contracts with meteorologists to work at the Test Site during the business week because weather conditions are still monitored for subcritical experiments conducted underground, Rohr said. Such subcritical tests use radioactive materials that are bombarded by high explosives, but do not create a nuclear chain reaction.

Lightning strikes near sensitive monitoring equipment are a major concern at the Test Site for scientists conducting subcritical experiments.

"It's a worry we have to watch out for," Rohr said.