14 balloon reports flagged, 2 satellite sectors moved
Notices & outages
An operational notice from the Senior Duty Meteorologist.
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.
14 stations were flagged: 4 sent no usable sounding at all, 6 reported a numeric status code, 1 had a balloon burst early, 2 were missing part of the transmission, 1 had bad data removed by quality control. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| LKN 72582 | Elko, 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 |
| 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 |
| LZK 72340 | Little Rock/Adams Field, AR | The station reported, but part of the sounding transmission was missing — specifically TTAA, the mandatory-levels section that carries the standard pressure levels up to 100 mb. | Missing TTAA/TTBB |
| ABQ 72365 | Albuquerque/Intl, NM | The station reported, but part of the sounding transmission was missing — specifically TTAA, the mandatory-levels section that carries the standard pressure levels up to 100 mb. | Missing TTAA/TTBB |
| ACA 76805 | Acapulco, Mexico · Mexico | The balloon burst early. It stopped reporting at 848 mb, so this sounding only covers the lower part of the atmosphere — forecasters and models got no data above roughly 1.5 km (5,000 ft). (848 mb ≈ 1.5 km (5,000 ft)) | Short to 848 mb |
| DTX 72632 | White Lake, MI | Quality control removed part of this sounding before it reached the models: temps/moisture at 755 mb...super-adiabatic lapse rate. The rest of the sounding was still used. | Purged temps/moisture at 755 mb...super-adiabatic lapse rate |
| 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 |
| 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 |
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-West is pointing mesoscale sector 1 over the eastern Pacific, about 350 mi SW of Los Angeles, CA — to support a research field campaign. 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
- 31.0°N, 123.0°W view on map
- Window
- from until
- Reason given
- NWS Spaceflight Meteorology Group operational entry support for the NASA/Space X Crew 12 splashdown off the California coast
GOES-East is pointing mesoscale sector 1 over the eastern Pacific, about 340 mi WSW of San Diego, CA. 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
- 30.0°N, 122.0°W view on map
- Window
- from until
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 080147
ADMSDM
SENIOR DUTY METEOROLOGIST NWS ADMINISTRATIVE MESSAGE
NWS CENTRAL OPERATIONS COLLEGE PARK MD
0147Z THU OCT 08 2026
The 00Z NAM began and is running on time with 9 Alaskan...26
Canadian...61 CONUS...14 Mexican...6 Caribbean...and 9 Pacific
stations available for ingest.
00Z NAM RAOB RECAP...
70414/SYA - No report
72582/LKN - No report
72694/SLE - No report
72786/OTX - No report
72340/LZK - Missing TTAA/TTBB
72365/ABQ - Missing TTAA/TTBB
76805/ACA - Short to 848 mb
72632/DTX - Purged temps/moisture at 755 mb...super-adiabatic
lapse rate
70133/OTZ - 10159
70219/BET - 10159
70308/SNP - 10159
70326/AKN - 10159
72274/TWC - 10159
78384/GCM - 10142
MDS STATUS...
GOES-W MDS Sector 1 will be centered over 31N/123W from 08/1400Z
until 08/1605Z in support of NWS Spaceflight Meteorology Group
(SMG) operational entry support for the NASA/Space X Crew 12
splashdown off the California coast.
GOES-E MDS Sector 1 will be centered over 30N/122W from 08/1500Z
until 08/1605Z to support NWS SMG research regarding the
NASA/SpaceX Crew 12 splashdown.
Ready/SDM/NCO