Missing Rawinsondes

[Mike Smith]

You've probably noticed all of the missing rawinsonde reports the last couple of months. It is going to get worse before it gets better per this memo from the National Weather Service: https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/pdf2/pns22-17_weather_balloon_launch_frequency.pdf

Already, the disagreements are coming in with regard to the NWS's contention that forecast and warning accuracy will not be affected by the lack of rawinsonde data. See, for instance,

https://twitter.com/x/status/1509549951180759044

 

[James K]

Interesting article. hadn't heard anything about that before. Certainly not a good issue with severe weather season starting.
(can't see the twitter link because trying to view anything on that site hasn't worked for a couple months now)

I'm assuming here is not one of the affected sites at this point.
I usually only check the local soundings, only seeing one missing a few weeks ago.