Currently Montréal - le 10 février 2023
La météo, actuellement.
Ce soir: neige se changeant en pluie au courant de la soirée.
🌡 Minimum 4°C
Vendredi: nuageux avec pluie intermittente. Vents du sud-ouest de 40 km/h avec rafales à 70.
🌡 Maximum 3°C
Vendredi soir: pluie se changeant en neige.
🌡 Minimum -8°C
Nous aurons 10:08 (+3 minutes) de lumière du jour demain.
The weather, currently.
Tonight: snow changing into rain during the evening.
🌡 Low 4°C
Friday: cloudy all day with intermittent rain. Southwest winds of 40 km/h gusting at 70.
🌡 High 3°C
Friday evening: rain changing into snow.
🌡 Low -8°C
We will have 10:08 (+3 minutes) of daylight tomorrow.
What you need to know, currently.
If you’re like me, your news alerts and social platforms have been inundated with news about the Chinese spy balloon that floated over the U.S. for several days and was shot down over South Carolina, on Saturday. What does this have to do with the weather? Well, the Chinese government claims the balloon was being used for “mainly meteorological” research.
The Biden administration confirmed today that the balloon was part of a “https://apnews.com/article/chinese-balloon-military-involvement-e45c759cb00294e83989fa35970935bc” that targeted around 40 different countries. Many have pointed out that in the age of satellite surveillance, using balloon technology does not make much sense. While the balloon motive is still not entirely clear, what we do know, is that a normal weather balloon could not have made the trek the spy balloon made.
So for starters, what is a weather balloon?
Weather balloons are an essential tool, used by meteorologists to collect weather data such as — temperature, pressure, and humidity. Every day about 900 weather balloons are released around the world. Typically, they start out around 6 feet wide and expand to 20 feet. Weather balloons are filled with https://currentlyhq.com/global/helium-shortage-impacting-weather-balloons/ and are equipped with a radiosonde — a small data collection device. They travel along, literally going where the wild blows, transmitting data back to the ground every one or two seconds, https://www.weather.gov/bmx/kidscorner_weatherballoons.
Weather balloons rise, expand, and eventually burst — usually somewhere around 60 thousand feet in the sky, however, they can reach up to 10 thousand feet. They generally travel around 100 miles on their journey and spend about 2 hours in the air, depending on weather conditions.
By contrast, the controversial spy balloon that was taken down over the Carolina coast, was about 200 feet tall — its payload, which holds equipment is estimated to be about the size of three school buses. The balloon also spent almost a week in the air and had some sort of navigational ability.
— Abbie Veitch
What you can do, currently.
