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Dave King (Caledonia Ramblers)
Weather information is available from a variety of sources but one that many do not seem to be aware of are the weather balloons released twice daily. The balloons are released simultaneously at locations across North America and around the world. For North America all data is coordinated through the Univ. of Wyoming. In BC, Environment Canada has 4 locations: Fort Nelson, Prince George, Kelowna and Port Hardy. There are also two sites just south of the border in Washington state.
The instruments record a variety of weather data including pressure, temperature, wind direction and wind speeds from ground level up to about 30,000 m elevation. It is downloaded and within an hour or two available at http://www.weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html
Bookmark the site. A map of North America will come up: click on the letter code nearest to you and a table of the data opens up.
When going into the mountains, the info can be very useful in providing info on likely weather/snow conditions to be be encountered, and for trip planning. In winter it is not uncommon to to find inversions with much warmer temperatures at higher elevations, occasionally well above freezing, when it is freezing in the valley bottom. Also the winds can be from very different directions and frequently much stronger.
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Weather Balloons |