It's been one week since our viewers woke up to find their homes and property damaged across the area. On Wednesday, March 23, Good Morning Quad Cities went live behind the scenes at the National Weather Service office in Davenport.
Meteorologists there track and plot severe weather patterns, which help the Storm Track 8 meteorologists put together their forecasts.
One of the tools used by the National Weather Service to plot incoming storms are weather balloons. They carry weather instruments thousands of feet up into the air to plot the humidity, wind pattern, pressure, and temperature. They release one balloon, twice a day all over the globe. In Davenport, the balloon releases happen at 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
WQAD News 8 reporter, Caroline Reinwald, had the chance to release one weather balloon on live television this morning. The video at the top of the page is what people saw on TV at home. If you want to see all the action (and struggles) going on behind the scenes before the live-shot, make sure you watch the video at the bottom of the page as well!
Check out the moments in the video below at 00:15 and 1:08 leading up to the release to see how tough it was to hang onto the weather balloon! (Teaser: watch at 1:21 to see the release.)
