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NOUS41 KWBC 072130
PNSWSH

Public Information Statement 25-11
National Weather Service Headquarters Silver Spring MD
430 PM EST Fri Mar 7, 2025

To: Subscribers:
 -NOAA Weather Wire Service
 -Emergency Manager Weather Information Network
 -NOAAPort
 Other NWS Partners, Users and Employees

From: Mike Hopkins, Director
 Surface and Upper Air Division
 Office of Observations

Subject: Intermittent Suspension of Radiosonde Observations at
Albany,
New York, and Gray, Maine, Effective Immediately.

Effective immediately, and until further notice, the National Weather
Service (NWS) is temporarily suspending some weather balloon launches
in Albany, New York, and Gray, Maine, due to a lack of Weather
Forecast Office (WFO) staffing.  Offices will perform twice daily
launches when staffing permits.  The Albany, NY, station has NWS
Upper
Air site identifier KALY and World Meteorological Organization
(WMO)
Upper Air site number 72518.  The Gray, ME, station has NWS Upper Air
site identifier KGYX and WMO Upper Air site number 74389.  The
NWS
launches weather balloons twice daily from 100 upper air sites
throughout the United States and the Caribbean.

Radiosondes are instruments attached to weather balloons that send
back a wide range of upper atmospheric data to support weather
forecasts, including temperature, dew point, relative humidity,
barometric pressure, wind speed, and wind direction.  Radiosondes are
one of many technologies that are used to collect earth observation
data for weather modeling and forecasting.  Data is also collected
from instruments aboard commercial aircraft, surface observing
stations, satellites, radars, and buoys.

If you or your organization have any questions about these changes,
please contact:

Susan Buchanan
Director of Public Affairs
National Weather Service
Phone: 202-834-5235
E-mail: susan.buchanan@noaa.gov

National Public Information Statements are online at:
https://www.weather.gov/notification/