Model run on time, 12 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-West is pointing mesoscale sector 2 at a point about 45 mi SW of Durango, CO — to support severe thunderstorm and tornado 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
- 36.8°N, 108.4°W view on map
- Window
- from until
- Reason given
- severe wx ops and a radar outage for WFO Pueblo
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.
12 stations were flagged: 5 sent no usable sounding at all, 7 reported a numeric status code, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| OTZ 70133 | Kotzebue, Ralph Wien, AK | Any reason not listed above — other or unspecified reason. “Unavailable” may appear as free text, but is not the formal definition. | 10159 |
| BET 70219 | Bethel/Bethel Airport, AK | Any reason not listed above — other or unspecified reason. “Unavailable” may appear as free text, but is not the formal definition. | 10159 |
| SNP 70308 | St. Paul Islands, AK | Any reason not listed above — other or unspecified reason. “Unavailable” may appear as free text, but is not the formal definition. | 10159 |
| AKN 70326 | King Salmon, AK | Any reason not listed above — other or unspecified reason. “Unavailable” may appear as free text, but is not the formal definition. | 10159 |
| TWC 72274 | Tucson, AZ | Any reason not listed above — other or unspecified reason. “Unavailable” may appear as free text, but is not the formal definition. | 10159 |
| POS 78970 | Piarco Intl, Trinidad · Trinidad and Tobago | Any reason not listed above — other or unspecified reason. “Unavailable” may appear as free text, but is not the formal definition. | 10159 |
| OKX 72501 | Upton, NY | The balloon burst early. It stopped reporting at 457 mb, so this sounding only covers the lower part of the atmosphere — forecasters and models got no data above roughly 6.2 km (20,500 ft). (457 mb ≈ 6.2 km (20,500 ft)) | Short to 457.0mb.. 10141 |
Model status
A status note about the current model run.
125 weather balloon launches were available to feed this run (9 in Alaska, 26 in Canada, 62 in Lower 48, 13 in Mexico, 5 in Caribbean, 10 in Pacific). “Stations available for ingest” means balloon soundings that arrived in time to be folded into the model’s starting picture of the atmosphere. Twice a day, sites across North America release balloons that measure temperature, humidity, pressure and wind all the way up. More stations reporting means a better-anchored starting point.
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 210127 ADMSDM SENIOR DUTY METEOROLOGIST NWS ADMINISTRATIVE MESSAGE NWS CENTRAL OPERATIONS COLLEGE PARK MD 0126Z FRI AUG 21 2026 MDS STATUS... GOES-W MDS Sector 2 will be centered over 36.8N/108.4W from 1200Z to 22/1200Z in support of severe wx ops and a radar outage for WFO Pueblo. 00Z NAM RAOB RECAP... `70414/SYA - No report `72206/JAX - No report `72388/VEF - No report `72645/GRB - No report `72786/OTX - No report `70133/OTZ - 10159 `70219/BET - 10159 `70308/SNP - 10159 `70326/AKN - 10159 `72274/TWC - 10159 `78970/POS - 10159 `72501/OKX - Short to 457.0mb.. 10141 There were 9 Alaskan...26 Canadian...62 CONUS...13 Mexican... 5 Caribbean and 10 Pacific stations available for ingest. Green/SDM/NCO