FWIW, our local NWS office is on a non-standard launch schedule. I stopped by their office a few weeks ago and asked about launch times and they said while the standard launch times are 00 and 12 Z they launch at 11 and 23 Z. I rang them a few minutes ago and got the same answer. BTW, CalSky provides weather balloon sighting predictions. However while they do show the non-standard launch times (11/23Z or 05/17 local) their predictions for my area in Stansbury are typically 6.4 to 6.8h and 18.2 to 18.7h (local). This despite NWS saying the balloons would have burst before then. patrick On 03 Sep 2013, at 11:35, daniel turner wrote:
Actually I reference the data that these balloons capture when I want to go out observing.
http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html
The balloons go up twice a day at 0z and 12z and their data can show layers of moist air that will cause observing problems as well as giving the total water in the air column which indicates thunder storm potential.