19 balloon reports flagged, satellite sector moved
Satellite moves MDS STATUS...
Each GOES weather satellite has two “mesoscale sectors” — small, movable windows that the satellite photographs roughly every 60 seconds, far more often than its routine full-disk and continental scans. Forecasters aim them at whatever is most important that day. This section announces where they are being pointed and for how long.
GOES-East is pointing mesoscale sector 2 at a point about 90 mi SSW of Albuquerque, NM — to support flash flood and heavy rainfall forecasting. That means this patch of sky gets a fresh satellite image about once a minute instead of every 5 to 10 minutes, so forecasters can watch storms develop almost in real time.
- Centre point
- 33.8°N, 107.0°W view on map
- Window
- from until
- Reason given
- flash flood risk and severe weather over the southwest US
Balloon reports 00Z NAM RAOB RECAP...
Twice a day, NWS and partner agencies release weather balloons that carry a radiosonde — a small instrument package that radios back temperature, humidity, pressure and wind as it climbs. Those soundings are one of the main ingredients in a forecast model’s starting conditions. This section is the roll call of stations that had a problem for the 00Z run of the NAM.
19 stations were flagged: 10 sent no usable sounding at all, 7 reported a numeric status code, 2 had a balloon burst early. A handful of gaps is normal and is not by itself a sign of a forecast problem — the models are built to work with an incomplete picture.
| Station | Where | What happened | As printed |
|---|---|---|---|
| YAK 70361 | Yakutat, AK | No weather balloon data from this station reached the model for this cycle — either no launch happened or the data did not arrive in time. | No report |
| SYA 70414 | Shemya AFB, AK | No weather balloon data from this station reached the model for this cycle — either no launch happened or the data did not arrive in time. | No report |
| JAX 72206 | Jacksonville/Intl, FL | No weather balloon data from this station reached the model for this cycle — either no launch happened or the data did not arrive in time. | No report |
| CRP 72251 | Corpus Christi/Intl, TX | No weather balloon data from this station reached the model for this cycle — either no launch happened or the data did not arrive in time. | No report |
| VEF 72388 | Las Vegas, NV | No weather balloon data from this station reached the model for this cycle — either no launch happened or the data did not arrive in time. | No report |
| GRB 72645 | Green Bay/A.-Straubel, WI | No weather balloon data from this station reached the model for this cycle — either no launch happened or the data did not arrive in time. | No report |
| ABR 72659 | Aberdeen/Reg, SD | No weather balloon data from this station reached the model for this cycle — either no launch happened or the data did not arrive in time. | No report |
| SLE 72694 | Salem/Mcnary, OR | No weather balloon data from this station reached the model for this cycle — either no launch happened or the data did not arrive in time. | No report |
| OTX 72786 | Spokane, WA | No weather balloon data from this station reached the model for this cycle — either no launch happened or the data did not arrive in time. | No report |
| UIL 72797 | Quillayute, WA | No weather balloon data from this station reached the model for this cycle — either no launch happened or the data did not arrive in time. | No report |
| OTZ 70133 | Kotzebue, Ralph Wien, AK | The station reported status code 10159. NWS does not publish a public legend for these codes, so we will not guess at what it means — it signals some problem with the launch or the data. unrecognised status code 10159 | 10159 |
| BET 70219 | Bethel/Bethel Airport, AK | The station reported status code 10159. NWS does not publish a public legend for these codes, so we will not guess at what it means — it signals some problem with the launch or the data. unrecognised status code 10159 | 10159 |
| SNP 70308 | St. Paul Islands, AK | The station reported status code 10159. NWS does not publish a public legend for these codes, so we will not guess at what it means — it signals some problem with the launch or the data. unrecognised status code 10159 | 10159 |
| AKN 70326 | King Salmon, AK | The station reported status code 10159. NWS does not publish a public legend for these codes, so we will not guess at what it means — it signals some problem with the launch or the data. unrecognised status code 10159 | 10159 |
| TWC 72274 | Tucson, AZ | The station reported status code 10159. NWS does not publish a public legend for these codes, so we will not guess at what it means — it signals some problem with the launch or the data. unrecognised status code 10159 | 10159 |
| OHX 72327 | Nashville/Metropolitan, TN | Ground equipment failure — the station’s tracking/receiving equipment was down, so no usable sounding was produced. | 10142 |
| GCM 78384 | Owen Roberts Airport Grand Cay · Cayman Islands | Ground equipment failure — the station’s tracking/receiving equipment was down, so no usable sounding was produced. | 10142 |
| CUU 76225 | Not in our station table | The balloon burst early. It stopped reporting at 659 mb, so this sounding only covers the lower part of the atmosphere — forecasters and models got no data above roughly 3.5 km (11,500 ft). (659 mb ≈ 3.5 km (11,500 ft)) | Short to 659 mb |
| MZL 76654 | Manzanillo, Col · Mexico | The balloon burst early. It stopped reporting at 479 mb, so this sounding only covers the lower part of the atmosphere — forecasters and models got no data above roughly 5.9 km (19,500 ft). (479 mb ≈ 5.9 km (19,500 ft)) | Short to 479 mb |
Show the original message
Exactly as NWS transmitted it. Everything above is our plain-English reading of this text — if the two ever disagree, this is the authoritative version.
000 NOUS42 KWNO 290137 ADMSDM SENIOR DUTY METEOROLOGIST NWS ADMINISTRATIVE MESSAGE NWS CENTRAL OPERATIONS COLLEGE PARK MD 0137Z TUE SEP 29 2026 MDS STATUS... GOES-E MDS Sector 2 will be centered over 33.8N/107W from 1220Z to 30/1200Z in support of flash flood risk and severe weather over the southwest US. The 00Z NWS model production suite began and is running on time with 8 Alaskan, 25 Canadian, 56 CONUS, 14 Mexican, 6 Caribbean, and 10 Pacific stations available for ingest. 00Z NAM RAOB RECAP... 70361/YAK - No report 70414/SYA - No report 72206/JAX - No report 72251/CRP - No report 72388/VEF - No report 72645/GRB - No report 72659/ABR - No report 72694/SLE - No report 72786/OTX - No report 72797/UIL - No report 70133/OTZ - 10159 70219/BET - 10159 70308/SNP - 10159 70326/AKN - 10159 72274/TWC - 10159 72327/OHX - 10142 78384/GCM - 10142 76225/CUU - Short to 659 mb 76654/MZL - Short to 479 mb Renkevens/SDM/NCO