Getty/The Washington Post
May 27, 2025
How do weather stations predict the weather?
Subscribe
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Amazon Music
iHeart
TuneIn
YouTube
RSSYou can’t see into the future, but with weather reports you can get a pretty good idea of what weather is coming your way. But how do forecasters make those predictions? In this episode, Molly and co-host Pedro learn about weather stations, special buildings where meteorologists use all kinds of tools to track rain, snow, sun and everything in between. We learn about weather balloons, radars, satellites and ocean buoys. Plus, forecast calls for a brand new Mystery Sound.
Featured Experts:
Sarah Johnson, meteorologist with the National Weather Service Philadelphia, PA / Mount Holly, NJ Weather Station
Brennan Dettman, meteorologist at the Chanhassen, MN Weather Station
Ryan Kittell, meteorologist & marine program manager, NOAA's National Weather Service, Oxnard, CA.
Audio Transcript
Download transcript (PDF)
CHILD 1: You're listening to Brains On, where we're serious about being curious.
CHILD 2: Brains On is supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
[GEESE HONKING]
GARY: Honk, honk! I call this meeting to order, fellow geese. It has been honked to my attention that when we migrate every year in our big gaggles--
GAVIN: It's a flock, Gary.
GARY: Excuse me, honk?
GAVIN: It's a gaggle of geese when we're on the ground. When we're in the sky, it's a flock.
GARY: Any honk, where was I? When we migrate every year in our flocks, the Doppler radars that the humans have set up to help them predict the weather, well, our big geese group shows up on their radars.
[GEESE HONKING]
Yes, I know. It's quite thrilling. I propose that this year, we do something really special for the radar, give those humans a good show. Let's fly in a special formation that will really read on the radar, give them something to honk about.
GAVIN: Hmm. How about we fly in the shape of a donut? Humans love donuts.
GARY: That's true, Gavin. They certainly do.
GAYLE: Maybe the shape of a phone? They love staring at those things.
GARY: Another valid suggestion, Gayle.
GAVIN: Oh, wait. I've got it. A V.
GARY: Why a V?
GAVIN: To show the humans that geese are valuable.
[GEESE HONKING]
GAYLE: Visionary!
[GEESE HONKING]
GAVIN: Victorious!
[GEESE HONKING]
GARY: Very good! Valiant! Honk, a flying V it is.
[GEESE HONKING]
[THEME MUSIC]
MOLLY BLOOM: You're listening to Brains On from APM Studios. I'm your host, Molly Bloom. And my co-host today is Pedro from San Diego, California. Hi, Pedro.
PEDRO: Hi, Molly.
MOLLY BLOOM: Brains On is a nonprofit public radio program, which means we rely on support from our listeners to keep the show going.
PEDRO: There's lots of ways you can support the show.
MOLLY BLOOM: You can donate, become a Smarty Pass subscriber, buy our merch, or come see us live. Head to brainson.org/fans to help support us.
PEDRO: Thank you.
MOLLY BLOOM: I am super excited to be co-hosting with you today, Pedro.
PEDRO: Me, too.
[CHIME]
MOLLY BLOOM: And today, we're answering this excellent question sent to us by Max from Sharpsburg, Georgia.
PEDRO: He wrote, how do weather stations predict the weather?
[CHIME]
Molly, is that sound coming from your phone?
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, whoops, yep. That's my Waffirmations app.
PEDRO: Your what-app?
MOLLY BLOOM: Weather affirmations. It sends me weather updates combined with affirmations, positive statements that help you feel good. Here, listen.
ANNOUNCER: Let the snow flurries dance on the westward winds howl. You are a cozy fortress of warmth and cheer. No gust or flake can rattle your spirit.
MOLLY BLOOM: Snow flurries? Oh, man. I'm definitely not wearing enough sweaters today.
PEDRO: How many sweaters are you wearing?
MOLLY BLOOM: Four, and sweater vest on top to pull my look together. Anyway, my Waffirmations weather app says it should warm up by the end of the week. So Pedro, I'm wondering, do you keep track of what the weather is going to be like?
PEDRO: No, I used to have an Apple Watch on me, and I used to check, but not anymore.
MOLLY BLOOM: Do your parents use a weather app?
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah? Do they tell you like, oh, Pedro, please put on a rain jacket, or please wear a sweater, or anything like that?
PEDRO: They always make me wear a jacket.
MOLLY BLOOM: So they're checking the weather for you, it sounds like. What is your favorite kind of weather?
PEDRO: Probably the type of weather that doesn't make me have to go to school.
MOLLY BLOOM: So do you have a least favorite kind of weather?
PEDRO: Sometimes I don't like going up to the snow in the mountains because sometimes it gets inside my boots. And it wets my socks, and it's so cold that I have to take it off.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, yes. So you're not a snow fan. So near San Diego, are there mountains you go to?
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Cool. And so up there, you can actually feel wintry, snowy weather.
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Well, that's fun. So you get the nice sunny weather of San Diego, and then you can go to winter if you want. No matter how you or your parents get their weather info, if you live in the United States, that information originally came from something called the National Weather Service.
PEDRO: Right. If you watch the weather forecast on the local news--
MOLLY BLOOM: --read it online--
PEDRO: --check a weather app--
MOLLY BLOOM: --ask Siri or Alexa or any other robot helper--
PEDRO: --or get a warning that a tornado is on the way--
MOLLY BLOOM: --all that information originally comes from the National Weather Service. Without the National Weather Service, the forecasts, as we know them, would not exist.
PEDRO: And if you live somewhere outside the US, your country probably has its own version of this.
MOLLY BLOOM: The National Weather Service is the only official weather forecaster in the United States.
PEDRO: And they provide more than a million forecasts every year for cities all over the country.
MOLLY BLOOM: These forecasts are based on data that the National Weather Service collects at weather stations. Weather stations are buildings with special equipment for watching weather patterns and trying to figure out what will happen next.
PEDRO: There are 122 weather stations spread out all over the US and even in other parts of the world.
MOLLY BLOOM: When we're not at Brains On headquarters, the Brains On team is also spread out all around the country. So a few of us visited our own local weather stations to learn more about how they make their predictions. Our pal, Nico Gonzalez Wisler, visited a weather in Mount Holly, New Jersey, and they're here to tell us about it. Hi, Nico.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Hi, Molly. Hi, Pedro.
PEDRO: So what was the weather like?
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Well, the station I visited keeps track of parts of New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. I talked with some meteorologists. That's another word for someone who studies the weather.
SARAH JOHNSON: Hi.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Hi. Are you Sarah?
SARAH JOHNSON: I am.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: I'm Nico--
SARAH JOHNSON: Hi, Nico. Nice to meet you.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: --from Brains On. How's it going?
SARAH JOHNSON: Good.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Nice to meet you.
SARAH JOHNSON: If I could just have you sign in--
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Yeah, of course.
SARAH JOHNSON: Just your name and date is good enough.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: The meteorologists at this station work around the clock to create forecasts and put out weather alerts. A lot of this is done using satellite and radar.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, yeah, I've heard of those. Weather satellites are up in space, high above the Earth's surface. And these satellites have special equipment on them to measure temperature, cloud cover, and lots of other things in our atmosphere. And some have cameras pointed at the Earth that can take pictures every 30 seconds.
PEDRO: It's a good thing Earth isn't camera shy.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Right. People also use radar to study and predict the weather. These are on the ground. There are radar stations all across the US. They're usually made up of a tall tower with a big, white globe-looking thing on top of it. Look, here's a picture of one of them.
MOLLY BLOOM: To me, they look like giant ping pong balls.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Ooh, they do look like that. These radar stations work by sending out radio waves.
[RADIO STATIC]
MOLLY BLOOM: Radio waves are a type of invisible energy that carries a lot of really cool information. If you have an old-fashioned radio at home or in your car, that uses radio waves to make sound.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Exactly. In the case of radar, the radio waves bump into stuff in the air, like rain, snow, or hail, and then bounce back to the radar station.
PEDRO: Oh, it sounds like how bats use echolocation.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, echolocation is when bats make a high-pitched noise, and it bounces off stuff around them. They can sense when that sound comes back to them and turn that information into a picture of the world.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Bats use their echolocation to detect things like trees or tasty bugs. And meteorologists use the radar information to tell where the storm is and what direction it's moving in. The radar tower that they use in Mount Holly sends information to a screen back in the weather station. When there are storms in the area, the screen will show big, almost cloud-shaped objects moving around.
PEDRO: Oh, yeah, like the weather reports on TV.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Right. At the weather station, there were a bunch of screens so that the meteorologist could look at different radar and satellite reports from all over the area.
SARAH JOHNSON: You see that there's like a very sharp edge here?
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Yes.
SARAH JOHNSON: That's the cold front that we're expecting later this week.
MOLLY BLOOM: So you've got satellites in space and radar towers on the ground. Is that the only difference? Why do they use both?
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Well, they both give you really important information. When I looked at the radar image on the screen, I could only see parts of two states, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. But the satellite in the sky showed those two states, plus New York, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. It's like a bird's eye view, if the bird was in space. One of the meteorologists at the weather station, Sarah Johnson, explained how it works.
SARAH JOHNSON: So, when we're looking at satellite, we're generally only looking at the tops of the clouds, whereas radar, we can be scanning at the bottom of the cloud, in the middle of the cloud, or even up at the top of the cloud. If you think about it this way, satellite is like taking a picture at the top of a cake and just looking at the top of the cake, whereas radar is actually taking a slice of the cake and being able to see exactly how many layers of cake it is.
BOTH: Mm, cake.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Because satellites show a larger area, they're helpful for monitoring storms that are approaching from farther away. Then, when the storms get closer, they can use the radar to get more information about what exactly the storm is doing.
MOLLY BLOOM: Wow, that is cool. Thank you for telling us about your trip, Nico.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: My pleasure. I got to go start working on my super secret hot cocoa recipe. I hear it's supposed to snow this afternoon.
BOTH: Mm, coco.
PEDRO: Bye, Nico.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Bye, you two.
[WHIMSICAL MUSIC]
NARRATOR: Brains On.
MOLLY BLOOM: Another way weather stations track weather is with balloons, and I got to go out and see one. We'll hear more about that in a bit, but first, it's time for the--
GIRL (WHISPERING): Shh. Mystery sound.
MOLLY BLOOM: You ready for the mystery sound, Pedro?
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Here it is.
[MYSTERY SOUND]
What do you think?
PEDRO: I think it's like one of those notebooks, like when you put a pencil in it, and you just start going down like the circle things, or you just do it with your finger.
MOLLY BLOOM: Mm. That's a really good guess. Should we hear it again and see if any other thoughts pop up?
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Here we go.
[MYSTERY SOUND]
PEDRO: I think it's one of those doorknobs on the bottom of the door that's just like doing that sound when you move it around.
MOLLY BLOOM: Like a stopper that's on a spring, and it can make that springy sound?
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hmm. That is a really good guess. I'm going to guess that it's someone dropping Tic Tacs on the floor.
PEDRO: Oh.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's what it sounds like to me. We're going to find out and get another chance to guess after the credits.
PEDRO: So stick around.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to float around in space? Well, you're in luck. We're making an episode about astronauts, and we want to know what food do you think would be hardest for astronauts to eat in space. Flying peas, a bowl of cereal and milk, there's so many possibilities. Pedro, what do you think?
PEDRO: It would probably be hard eating a cookie.
MOLLY BLOOM: Why do you think it would be hard?
PEDRO: Probably because when you're chewing it in your mouth, it floats around, and it could hit the roof of your tongue. And it'd be hard to putting it under the teeth to chew it.
MOLLY BLOOM: Mm, good point. Also, it'd be really hard to dunk it in milk. Well, listeners, we want to know what food you think would be hard to eat in space and why. Record your answer and send it to us at brainson.org/contact. While you're there, send us your mystery sounds, drawings, and questions.
PEDRO: Like this one.
GIRL: How do mood rings work?
MOLLY BLOOM: Find answers to questions like this on the Moment of Um podcast, a short dose of facts and fun every weekday. Find Moment of Um and more at brainson.org.
PEDRO: And keep listening.
NARRATOR: Brains On Universe is a family of podcasts for kids and their adults. Since you're a fan of Brains On, you'll love the other shows in our universe. Come on, let's explore.
MARTIAN: [PANTING]
Its alien exercise hour! Haiyah! Hoo-hah! While I stretch my snoodles and bounce on my trampolinee, I'll listen to a new podcast.
[LAUGHING]
[BUZZER]
I'm going to try Smash Boom Best, the best debate podcast ever!
[BEEPING]
MOLLY BLOOM: Tell us why Alice in Wonderland has such grand command?
SINGER: Drop the beat.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed judge of Smash Boom Best, I'd like to start with a few rhymes.
(SINGING) Ah, yo, catch me in the rabbit hole
Dazzled by a magic show by the--
MARTIAN: Zorp! Come back here, podcast.
[BEEPING]
Must listen to Smash Boom Best now!
NARRATOR: Listen to Smash Boom Best wherever you get your podcasts.
MEN (SINGING): Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, Brains On
PEDRO: You're listening to Brains On. I'm Pedro.
MOLLY BLOOM: And I'm Molly. Today we're talking all about weather stations and the equipment they use to predict the weather. We just heard all about radar and satellites.
PEDRO: Both are super important for tracking and understanding storms.
MOLLY BLOOM: Satellites get a big bird's eye view of storms, and radar can tell us more about what's going on inside a storm. Another way weather stations track the weather is with balloons. My Brains On buddy Rachel Brees and I drove about 30 minutes from my house to Chanhassen, Minnesota, to see one.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Is everything sounding good?
RACHEL BREES: Yeah.
BRENNAN DETTMANN: Let me know if I need to--
MOLLY BLOOM: Brennan Dettman is a meteorologist at the Chanhassen weather station. The office where he works has lots of computer monitors with maps and charts and graphs and video from live traffic cameras.
PEDRO: But you weren't there for the screens, Molly.
MOLLY BLOOM: You are correct. We were there for the weather balloon.
PEDRO: Is it like a balloon animal, but instead of an elephant, it's a lightning bolt?
MOLLY BLOOM: That would be amazing, but no, it's just a really big balloon, like the ones you would blow up for a birthday party. But these balloons aren't colorful. They're usually white, and they aren't for decoration. They are important tools for weather stations. The Chanhassen weather station launches two balloons into the sky every day, one at 6:00 AM and one at 6:00 PM. Here's our meteorologist friend Brennan again.
BRENNAN DETTMANN: So there are two main components to a weather balloon. So you have the first thing, which is the instrument that is measuring the data, which is called a radiosonde.
MOLLY BLOOM: The radiosonde is a small, white foam box about as big as the palm of my hand.
PEDRO: So what's it for?
MOLLY BLOOM: Good question. The radiosonde is really important. It has sensors on it for measuring different things way up in the air, like temperature, humidity.
BRENNAN DETTMANN: And then there's a pressure sensor in there, as well as a GPS tracker, to allow us to determine wind speed and wind direction based on where the radiosonde is located.
MOLLY BLOOM: And the way meteorologists get this radiosonde box up into the sky is delightfully low tech. They take a long piece of string, tie one end around the box and the other end to a balloon. Brennan took us to the garage where they fill the weather balloon with hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas floats, just like the helium you put in party balloons.
BRENNAN DETTMANN: So the whole process will take about-- once I start filling up, about 10 minutes.
MOLLY BLOOM: It takes 10 minutes to fill up because it's a really big balloon, bigger than an adult. But besides its giant size, it's really like any other latex balloon. While it's filling up, Brennan attaches a little orange parachute to the radiosonde box and then ties the radiosonde to the balloon with string. And now, its launch time.
BRENNAN DETTMANN: So I go out away from the shelter there, just to make sure it doesn't try to fly into the building and potentially pop or damage the instrument. And ready to go? All right, 3, 2, 1.
MOLLY BLOOM: The balloon zips up into the sky with the radiosonde attached. We can watch it for a ways, but soon enough, it's so small, we can barely see it.
PEDRO: Whoa! How high does it go?
MOLLY BLOOM: Really high, about 100,000 feet above the ground. That's three times higher than most big passenger planes. And as it goes up in the atmosphere, there's less pressure on the balloon, so it expands and gets even bigger, about as wide as a school bus.
PEDRO: That's a really big balloon.
MOLLY BLOOM: I know. It's wild. The balloon eventually expands so much that it pops. Then the radiosonde drifts back down to Earth with the help of its orange parachute. And along the way, it's collecting data that would be really hard to get otherwise and sending it to the weather station.
BRENNAN DETTMANN: Weather balloons provide that critical data throughout the entire atmosphere, and all that data is then put into weather models to help improve forecasting. So it all goes hand in hand, which is pretty cool.
MOLLY BLOOM: The radiosondes can land over 90 miles away from where they're first launched. The Weather Service doesn't worry about collecting them again because they're usually only used once. But since the GPS data from these is public, there are some people who like to chase them down when they land, like a game. Listeners, if you want to see what the weather balloon looks like and watch the launch, we posted a video on our Instagram. We're at brains_on. Now, from the air to the ocean.
PEDRO: Because it turns out you can learn about the weather from the water, too.
MOLLY BLOOM: Our pal, Sanden Totten, visited a weather station on the coast of California. He went there to learn about weather buoys.
PEDRO: A buoy is something that floats in water.
MOLLY BLOOM: And the National Weather Service uses them to track the waves.
[CHIME]
PEDRO: Oh, that must be Sanden!
MOLLY BLOOM: Oops. No, it's another weather update in coming from my Waffirmations app.
ANNOUNCER: The ice may coat the roads, but as always, you glide through with grace. No slip or slide can unsteady your stride.
MOLLY BLOOM: Ugh, icy roads? Well, at least I've got Vanilla Ice's greatest hits on cassette.
[VOCALIZING]
PEDRO: [CLEARS THROAT] Molly, the weather buoys.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, sorry. Right. I'm really into revisiting my youth through cassettes I find at secondhand stores right now. Anyway, let's hear what Sanden learned on his visit to that weather station.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Hey, Sanden here. I'm in Oxnard, Caifornia, at the National Weather Service weather forecast office, and I'm here with--
RYAN KITTELL: Ryan Kittell. I am a meteorologist here. I get to study not just hydrometeors, which are like a fancy word for rain, but all sorts of weather and try to predict it and let everybody know about it.
SANDEN TOTTEN: And the weather today is beautiful. We're standing outside. It's sunny, a little breezy. But we're in this really interesting place behind your office. I would say, it looks like a garden, but instead of trees and plants, there's mostly these old weather machines. So there's poles with things spinning on them. It feels like we're in a robot graveyard. What is this place?
RYAN KITTELL: Oh, man, I haven't heard it put that way, but you're right. They're all retired weather equipment. So we have things from what's called an anemometer, which is used to measure the wind speed and direction, and even some gauges that will collect rainfall and tell us how much rain is falling. But we also have weather buoys which are displayed out here. They bob up and down.
There's a cool instrument inside of it, a sensor inside of it that's very similar to things on phones and Nintendo switches that can detect the way that you're tilting the controller, a similar type of instrument called an accelerometer that can actually detect when the buoy bobs up and down to tell how big the waves are.
SANDEN TOTTEN: How would you describe these two round buoys in front of us?
RYAN KITTELL: They're in desperate need of a paint job, I'll describe it that way. There's paint peeling. They haven't really seen service for probably over 10 years. The ones that are out in the water actually look nicer. They're painted and well-lit.
And it really does help us to make better forecasts to predict how big these waves are. Because if you're on a boat, you don't want big waves because it's easy to get seasick, but it also can be really dangerous. So if we know how big the waves are, we can alert people, and these buoys are really big tools for that.
SANDEN TOTTEN: They look like, I would say, like really big Christmas ornaments or maybe like that one's red on the bottom and white on the top, it reminds me of a Poké Ball. Do you play Pokemon at all, or do you know about Pokemon?
RYAN KITTELL: I have three kids, and they are all into Pokemon. For sure, yeah, for the paint and color, it's a good description with the white on the top and the red on the bottom.
SANDEN TOTTEN: They're big. They look like those giant exercise balls sometimes people use to sit on or to do sit-ups on.
RYAN KITTELL: That's a great example, one of those big exercise balls. And then it has a light on the top because they're out in the waters where boaters are so that boaters can see it, especially at night, because otherwise, they'd be really easy to run over, and that's not good for anybody. They are anchored by a very heavy long chain.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, yeah, that is a beefy chain. It looks like something you'd chain up a monster with maybe.
RYAN KITTELL: It does. It definitely has that look.
SANDEN TOTTEN: That's a way to it.
[CHAINS CLANKING]
These seem like they're pretty simple tools from what you're describing to me. They float in the water. They have a little device inside them that measure how much they're tilting and how much they're going up and down. They have a light so that people see them. But where does that data go, and how do they get it to you?
RYAN KITTELL: So on top of these buoys are a radio antenna. And that signal, the data gets transmitted through a radio frequency to receivers on the coast. They'll get that data, they'll process it, and then they'll send it out to the world, including to our office. There's usually maybe a 10-minute delay, but it all happens pretty fast.
SANDEN TOTTEN: What's powering all that inside the buoy?
RYAN KITTELL: These particular ones actually have a really big battery. Some of them might have a solar panel, but they do have really large batteries. And they do have to get replaced regularly.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Well, Ryan, this was so cool. Thank you so much for showing us all this.
RYAN KITTELL: So glad you can come out.
SANDEN TOTTEN: And thank you for your service, retired buoys.
MOLLY BLOOM: There are all different ways that people track, measure, and predict the weather.
PEDRO: Like radars, satellites, balloons, and buoys.
MOLLY BLOOM: And all of this different weather data is constantly being fed into giant supercomputers. Just like Superman is like 10,000 times stronger than us regular people, supercomputers are like 10,000 times stronger than the computers we have at home or school. These computers take the data and make predictions about what the weather will do.
PEDRO: The more data they have, the better the prediction will be.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's why the Weather Service uses so many different tools so that the computer can get the best possible picture of what's going on at sea, on land, and in the air.
PEDRO: And because the National Weather Service is a public service, everybody can use these predictions.
MOLLY BLOOM: Like, for example, to make a weather/daily affirmations app.
[CHIME]
ANNOUNCER: Not even this weekend's sun can outshine your brightness and warmth.
MOLLY BLOOM: A sunny day!
PEDRO: Wahoo!
MOLLY BLOOM: Time to plan a picnic.
[THEME MUSIC]
The National Weather Service operates more than 100 separate weather stations.
PEDRO: These stations make more than a million weather forecasts a year across the country.
MOLLY BLOOM: They make these forecasts using equipment like radar, satellites, weather balloons and weather buoys.
PEDRO: And they process it all by using the strongest computers in the world.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's it for this episode of Brains On. This episode was written by--
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Nico Gonzalez Wisler--
SANDEN TOTTEN: Sanden Totten--
MOLLY BLOOM: --and me, Molly Bloom. It was edited by--
SHAHLA FARZAN: Shahla Farzan.
MOLLY BLOOM: We had engineering help from Eric Ramani and Deborah Reeves, with sound design by--
RACHEL BREES: Rachel Brees.
MOLLY BLOOM: --and fact-checking by--
REBECCA RAND: Rebecca Rand.
MOLLY BLOOM: Original theme music by--
MARC SANCHEZ: Marc Sanchez.
PEDRO: We had production help from the rest of the Brains On Universe team--
ROSIE DUPONT: Rosie DuPont.
ANNA GOLDFIELD: Anna Goldfield.
RUBY GUTHRIE: Ruby Guthrie.
LAUREN HUMBERT: Lauren Humbert.
JOSHUA RAY: Joshua Ray.
MARC SANCHEZ: Marc Sanchez.
CHARLOTTE TRAVER: Charlotte Traver.
ANNA WEIGEL: Anna Weigel.
PEDRO: And--
ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Aron Woldeslassie.
MOLLY BLOOM: Beth Pearlman is our executive producer, and the executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kavati and Joanne Griffith. Special thanks to Vinícius Cruzeiro Fabiana Marques, and Daniel Doktori.
PEDRO: Brains On is a nonprofit public radio program.
MOLLY BLOOM: There are lots of ways to support the show, subscribe to Brains On Universe on YouTube, where you can watch animated versions of some of your favorite episodes, or head to brainson.org.
PEDRO: While you're there, you can send us mystery sounds, drawings, and questions.
MOLLY BLOOM: Pedro, are you ready to hear the mystery sound again?
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right, here it is.
[MYSTERY SOUND]
What do you think?
PEDRO: Now that I think of it, I think it's probably just coins dropping on the floor, like if I accidentally drop a coin while playing heads or tails.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hmm, I like it. I like it. I know you like to play heads and tails a lot. It's one of your favorite things, right?
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: I think that's a great guess. Should we hear the answer?
PEDRO: Yeah.
CAMILLE: My name is Camille, and I'm from SFO, California. That was the sound of marbles dropping on the floor.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, marbles dropping on the floor.
PEDRO: Ah.
MOLLY BLOOM: You were not that far off. You thought something was dropping on the floor. You just thought it was coins. I think we're giving ourselves partial credit for that, for sure.
PEDRO: Yeah.
[MYSTERY SOUND]
MOLLY BLOOM: Now it's time for the Brains Honor Roll. These are the incredible kids who keep the show going with their questions, ideas, mystery sounds, drawings, and high fives.
[LISTING HONOR ROLL]
[THEME MUSIC] Brains On, high five
MOLLY BLOOM: We'll be back next week with an episode all about what it's like to be an astronaut.
PEDRO: Thanks for listening.
CHILD 2: Brains On is supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
[GEESE HONKING]
GARY: Honk, honk! I call this meeting to order, fellow geese. It has been honked to my attention that when we migrate every year in our big gaggles--
GAVIN: It's a flock, Gary.
GARY: Excuse me, honk?
GAVIN: It's a gaggle of geese when we're on the ground. When we're in the sky, it's a flock.
GARY: Any honk, where was I? When we migrate every year in our flocks, the Doppler radars that the humans have set up to help them predict the weather, well, our big geese group shows up on their radars.
[GEESE HONKING]
Yes, I know. It's quite thrilling. I propose that this year, we do something really special for the radar, give those humans a good show. Let's fly in a special formation that will really read on the radar, give them something to honk about.
GAVIN: Hmm. How about we fly in the shape of a donut? Humans love donuts.
GARY: That's true, Gavin. They certainly do.
GAYLE: Maybe the shape of a phone? They love staring at those things.
GARY: Another valid suggestion, Gayle.
GAVIN: Oh, wait. I've got it. A V.
GARY: Why a V?
GAVIN: To show the humans that geese are valuable.
[GEESE HONKING]
GAYLE: Visionary!
[GEESE HONKING]
GAVIN: Victorious!
[GEESE HONKING]
GARY: Very good! Valiant! Honk, a flying V it is.
[GEESE HONKING]
[THEME MUSIC]
MOLLY BLOOM: You're listening to Brains On from APM Studios. I'm your host, Molly Bloom. And my co-host today is Pedro from San Diego, California. Hi, Pedro.
PEDRO: Hi, Molly.
MOLLY BLOOM: Brains On is a nonprofit public radio program, which means we rely on support from our listeners to keep the show going.
PEDRO: There's lots of ways you can support the show.
MOLLY BLOOM: You can donate, become a Smarty Pass subscriber, buy our merch, or come see us live. Head to brainson.org/fans to help support us.
PEDRO: Thank you.
MOLLY BLOOM: I am super excited to be co-hosting with you today, Pedro.
PEDRO: Me, too.
[CHIME]
MOLLY BLOOM: And today, we're answering this excellent question sent to us by Max from Sharpsburg, Georgia.
PEDRO: He wrote, how do weather stations predict the weather?
[CHIME]
Molly, is that sound coming from your phone?
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, whoops, yep. That's my Waffirmations app.
PEDRO: Your what-app?
MOLLY BLOOM: Weather affirmations. It sends me weather updates combined with affirmations, positive statements that help you feel good. Here, listen.
ANNOUNCER: Let the snow flurries dance on the westward winds howl. You are a cozy fortress of warmth and cheer. No gust or flake can rattle your spirit.
MOLLY BLOOM: Snow flurries? Oh, man. I'm definitely not wearing enough sweaters today.
PEDRO: How many sweaters are you wearing?
MOLLY BLOOM: Four, and sweater vest on top to pull my look together. Anyway, my Waffirmations weather app says it should warm up by the end of the week. So Pedro, I'm wondering, do you keep track of what the weather is going to be like?
PEDRO: No, I used to have an Apple Watch on me, and I used to check, but not anymore.
MOLLY BLOOM: Do your parents use a weather app?
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah? Do they tell you like, oh, Pedro, please put on a rain jacket, or please wear a sweater, or anything like that?
PEDRO: They always make me wear a jacket.
MOLLY BLOOM: So they're checking the weather for you, it sounds like. What is your favorite kind of weather?
PEDRO: Probably the type of weather that doesn't make me have to go to school.
MOLLY BLOOM: So do you have a least favorite kind of weather?
PEDRO: Sometimes I don't like going up to the snow in the mountains because sometimes it gets inside my boots. And it wets my socks, and it's so cold that I have to take it off.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, yes. So you're not a snow fan. So near San Diego, are there mountains you go to?
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Cool. And so up there, you can actually feel wintry, snowy weather.
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Well, that's fun. So you get the nice sunny weather of San Diego, and then you can go to winter if you want. No matter how you or your parents get their weather info, if you live in the United States, that information originally came from something called the National Weather Service.
PEDRO: Right. If you watch the weather forecast on the local news--
MOLLY BLOOM: --read it online--
PEDRO: --check a weather app--
MOLLY BLOOM: --ask Siri or Alexa or any other robot helper--
PEDRO: --or get a warning that a tornado is on the way--
MOLLY BLOOM: --all that information originally comes from the National Weather Service. Without the National Weather Service, the forecasts, as we know them, would not exist.
PEDRO: And if you live somewhere outside the US, your country probably has its own version of this.
MOLLY BLOOM: The National Weather Service is the only official weather forecaster in the United States.
PEDRO: And they provide more than a million forecasts every year for cities all over the country.
MOLLY BLOOM: These forecasts are based on data that the National Weather Service collects at weather stations. Weather stations are buildings with special equipment for watching weather patterns and trying to figure out what will happen next.
PEDRO: There are 122 weather stations spread out all over the US and even in other parts of the world.
MOLLY BLOOM: When we're not at Brains On headquarters, the Brains On team is also spread out all around the country. So a few of us visited our own local weather stations to learn more about how they make their predictions. Our pal, Nico Gonzalez Wisler, visited a weather in Mount Holly, New Jersey, and they're here to tell us about it. Hi, Nico.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Hi, Molly. Hi, Pedro.
PEDRO: So what was the weather like?
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Well, the station I visited keeps track of parts of New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. I talked with some meteorologists. That's another word for someone who studies the weather.
SARAH JOHNSON: Hi.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Hi. Are you Sarah?
SARAH JOHNSON: I am.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: I'm Nico--
SARAH JOHNSON: Hi, Nico. Nice to meet you.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: --from Brains On. How's it going?
SARAH JOHNSON: Good.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Nice to meet you.
SARAH JOHNSON: If I could just have you sign in--
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Yeah, of course.
SARAH JOHNSON: Just your name and date is good enough.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: The meteorologists at this station work around the clock to create forecasts and put out weather alerts. A lot of this is done using satellite and radar.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, yeah, I've heard of those. Weather satellites are up in space, high above the Earth's surface. And these satellites have special equipment on them to measure temperature, cloud cover, and lots of other things in our atmosphere. And some have cameras pointed at the Earth that can take pictures every 30 seconds.
PEDRO: It's a good thing Earth isn't camera shy.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Right. People also use radar to study and predict the weather. These are on the ground. There are radar stations all across the US. They're usually made up of a tall tower with a big, white globe-looking thing on top of it. Look, here's a picture of one of them.
MOLLY BLOOM: To me, they look like giant ping pong balls.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Ooh, they do look like that. These radar stations work by sending out radio waves.
[RADIO STATIC]
MOLLY BLOOM: Radio waves are a type of invisible energy that carries a lot of really cool information. If you have an old-fashioned radio at home or in your car, that uses radio waves to make sound.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Exactly. In the case of radar, the radio waves bump into stuff in the air, like rain, snow, or hail, and then bounce back to the radar station.
PEDRO: Oh, it sounds like how bats use echolocation.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, echolocation is when bats make a high-pitched noise, and it bounces off stuff around them. They can sense when that sound comes back to them and turn that information into a picture of the world.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Bats use their echolocation to detect things like trees or tasty bugs. And meteorologists use the radar information to tell where the storm is and what direction it's moving in. The radar tower that they use in Mount Holly sends information to a screen back in the weather station. When there are storms in the area, the screen will show big, almost cloud-shaped objects moving around.
PEDRO: Oh, yeah, like the weather reports on TV.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Right. At the weather station, there were a bunch of screens so that the meteorologist could look at different radar and satellite reports from all over the area.
SARAH JOHNSON: You see that there's like a very sharp edge here?
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Yes.
SARAH JOHNSON: That's the cold front that we're expecting later this week.
MOLLY BLOOM: So you've got satellites in space and radar towers on the ground. Is that the only difference? Why do they use both?
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Well, they both give you really important information. When I looked at the radar image on the screen, I could only see parts of two states, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. But the satellite in the sky showed those two states, plus New York, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. It's like a bird's eye view, if the bird was in space. One of the meteorologists at the weather station, Sarah Johnson, explained how it works.
SARAH JOHNSON: So, when we're looking at satellite, we're generally only looking at the tops of the clouds, whereas radar, we can be scanning at the bottom of the cloud, in the middle of the cloud, or even up at the top of the cloud. If you think about it this way, satellite is like taking a picture at the top of a cake and just looking at the top of the cake, whereas radar is actually taking a slice of the cake and being able to see exactly how many layers of cake it is.
BOTH: Mm, cake.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Because satellites show a larger area, they're helpful for monitoring storms that are approaching from farther away. Then, when the storms get closer, they can use the radar to get more information about what exactly the storm is doing.
MOLLY BLOOM: Wow, that is cool. Thank you for telling us about your trip, Nico.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: My pleasure. I got to go start working on my super secret hot cocoa recipe. I hear it's supposed to snow this afternoon.
BOTH: Mm, coco.
PEDRO: Bye, Nico.
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Bye, you two.
[WHIMSICAL MUSIC]
NARRATOR: Brains On.
MOLLY BLOOM: Another way weather stations track weather is with balloons, and I got to go out and see one. We'll hear more about that in a bit, but first, it's time for the--
GIRL (WHISPERING): Shh. Mystery sound.
MOLLY BLOOM: You ready for the mystery sound, Pedro?
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Here it is.
[MYSTERY SOUND]
What do you think?
PEDRO: I think it's like one of those notebooks, like when you put a pencil in it, and you just start going down like the circle things, or you just do it with your finger.
MOLLY BLOOM: Mm. That's a really good guess. Should we hear it again and see if any other thoughts pop up?
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Here we go.
[MYSTERY SOUND]
PEDRO: I think it's one of those doorknobs on the bottom of the door that's just like doing that sound when you move it around.
MOLLY BLOOM: Like a stopper that's on a spring, and it can make that springy sound?
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hmm. That is a really good guess. I'm going to guess that it's someone dropping Tic Tacs on the floor.
PEDRO: Oh.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's what it sounds like to me. We're going to find out and get another chance to guess after the credits.
PEDRO: So stick around.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to float around in space? Well, you're in luck. We're making an episode about astronauts, and we want to know what food do you think would be hardest for astronauts to eat in space. Flying peas, a bowl of cereal and milk, there's so many possibilities. Pedro, what do you think?
PEDRO: It would probably be hard eating a cookie.
MOLLY BLOOM: Why do you think it would be hard?
PEDRO: Probably because when you're chewing it in your mouth, it floats around, and it could hit the roof of your tongue. And it'd be hard to putting it under the teeth to chew it.
MOLLY BLOOM: Mm, good point. Also, it'd be really hard to dunk it in milk. Well, listeners, we want to know what food you think would be hard to eat in space and why. Record your answer and send it to us at brainson.org/contact. While you're there, send us your mystery sounds, drawings, and questions.
PEDRO: Like this one.
GIRL: How do mood rings work?
MOLLY BLOOM: Find answers to questions like this on the Moment of Um podcast, a short dose of facts and fun every weekday. Find Moment of Um and more at brainson.org.
PEDRO: And keep listening.
NARRATOR: Brains On Universe is a family of podcasts for kids and their adults. Since you're a fan of Brains On, you'll love the other shows in our universe. Come on, let's explore.
MARTIAN: [PANTING]
Its alien exercise hour! Haiyah! Hoo-hah! While I stretch my snoodles and bounce on my trampolinee, I'll listen to a new podcast.
[LAUGHING]
[BUZZER]
I'm going to try Smash Boom Best, the best debate podcast ever!
[BEEPING]
MOLLY BLOOM: Tell us why Alice in Wonderland has such grand command?
SINGER: Drop the beat.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed judge of Smash Boom Best, I'd like to start with a few rhymes.
(SINGING) Ah, yo, catch me in the rabbit hole
Dazzled by a magic show by the--
MARTIAN: Zorp! Come back here, podcast.
[BEEPING]
Must listen to Smash Boom Best now!
NARRATOR: Listen to Smash Boom Best wherever you get your podcasts.
MEN (SINGING): Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, Brains On
PEDRO: You're listening to Brains On. I'm Pedro.
MOLLY BLOOM: And I'm Molly. Today we're talking all about weather stations and the equipment they use to predict the weather. We just heard all about radar and satellites.
PEDRO: Both are super important for tracking and understanding storms.
MOLLY BLOOM: Satellites get a big bird's eye view of storms, and radar can tell us more about what's going on inside a storm. Another way weather stations track the weather is with balloons. My Brains On buddy Rachel Brees and I drove about 30 minutes from my house to Chanhassen, Minnesota, to see one.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Is everything sounding good?
RACHEL BREES: Yeah.
BRENNAN DETTMANN: Let me know if I need to--
MOLLY BLOOM: Brennan Dettman is a meteorologist at the Chanhassen weather station. The office where he works has lots of computer monitors with maps and charts and graphs and video from live traffic cameras.
PEDRO: But you weren't there for the screens, Molly.
MOLLY BLOOM: You are correct. We were there for the weather balloon.
PEDRO: Is it like a balloon animal, but instead of an elephant, it's a lightning bolt?
MOLLY BLOOM: That would be amazing, but no, it's just a really big balloon, like the ones you would blow up for a birthday party. But these balloons aren't colorful. They're usually white, and they aren't for decoration. They are important tools for weather stations. The Chanhassen weather station launches two balloons into the sky every day, one at 6:00 AM and one at 6:00 PM. Here's our meteorologist friend Brennan again.
BRENNAN DETTMANN: So there are two main components to a weather balloon. So you have the first thing, which is the instrument that is measuring the data, which is called a radiosonde.
MOLLY BLOOM: The radiosonde is a small, white foam box about as big as the palm of my hand.
PEDRO: So what's it for?
MOLLY BLOOM: Good question. The radiosonde is really important. It has sensors on it for measuring different things way up in the air, like temperature, humidity.
BRENNAN DETTMANN: And then there's a pressure sensor in there, as well as a GPS tracker, to allow us to determine wind speed and wind direction based on where the radiosonde is located.
MOLLY BLOOM: And the way meteorologists get this radiosonde box up into the sky is delightfully low tech. They take a long piece of string, tie one end around the box and the other end to a balloon. Brennan took us to the garage where they fill the weather balloon with hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas floats, just like the helium you put in party balloons.
BRENNAN DETTMANN: So the whole process will take about-- once I start filling up, about 10 minutes.
MOLLY BLOOM: It takes 10 minutes to fill up because it's a really big balloon, bigger than an adult. But besides its giant size, it's really like any other latex balloon. While it's filling up, Brennan attaches a little orange parachute to the radiosonde box and then ties the radiosonde to the balloon with string. And now, its launch time.
BRENNAN DETTMANN: So I go out away from the shelter there, just to make sure it doesn't try to fly into the building and potentially pop or damage the instrument. And ready to go? All right, 3, 2, 1.
MOLLY BLOOM: The balloon zips up into the sky with the radiosonde attached. We can watch it for a ways, but soon enough, it's so small, we can barely see it.
PEDRO: Whoa! How high does it go?
MOLLY BLOOM: Really high, about 100,000 feet above the ground. That's three times higher than most big passenger planes. And as it goes up in the atmosphere, there's less pressure on the balloon, so it expands and gets even bigger, about as wide as a school bus.
PEDRO: That's a really big balloon.
MOLLY BLOOM: I know. It's wild. The balloon eventually expands so much that it pops. Then the radiosonde drifts back down to Earth with the help of its orange parachute. And along the way, it's collecting data that would be really hard to get otherwise and sending it to the weather station.
BRENNAN DETTMANN: Weather balloons provide that critical data throughout the entire atmosphere, and all that data is then put into weather models to help improve forecasting. So it all goes hand in hand, which is pretty cool.
MOLLY BLOOM: The radiosondes can land over 90 miles away from where they're first launched. The Weather Service doesn't worry about collecting them again because they're usually only used once. But since the GPS data from these is public, there are some people who like to chase them down when they land, like a game. Listeners, if you want to see what the weather balloon looks like and watch the launch, we posted a video on our Instagram. We're at brains_on. Now, from the air to the ocean.
PEDRO: Because it turns out you can learn about the weather from the water, too.
MOLLY BLOOM: Our pal, Sanden Totten, visited a weather station on the coast of California. He went there to learn about weather buoys.
PEDRO: A buoy is something that floats in water.
MOLLY BLOOM: And the National Weather Service uses them to track the waves.
[CHIME]
PEDRO: Oh, that must be Sanden!
MOLLY BLOOM: Oops. No, it's another weather update in coming from my Waffirmations app.
ANNOUNCER: The ice may coat the roads, but as always, you glide through with grace. No slip or slide can unsteady your stride.
MOLLY BLOOM: Ugh, icy roads? Well, at least I've got Vanilla Ice's greatest hits on cassette.
[VOCALIZING]
PEDRO: [CLEARS THROAT] Molly, the weather buoys.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, sorry. Right. I'm really into revisiting my youth through cassettes I find at secondhand stores right now. Anyway, let's hear what Sanden learned on his visit to that weather station.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Hey, Sanden here. I'm in Oxnard, Caifornia, at the National Weather Service weather forecast office, and I'm here with--
RYAN KITTELL: Ryan Kittell. I am a meteorologist here. I get to study not just hydrometeors, which are like a fancy word for rain, but all sorts of weather and try to predict it and let everybody know about it.
SANDEN TOTTEN: And the weather today is beautiful. We're standing outside. It's sunny, a little breezy. But we're in this really interesting place behind your office. I would say, it looks like a garden, but instead of trees and plants, there's mostly these old weather machines. So there's poles with things spinning on them. It feels like we're in a robot graveyard. What is this place?
RYAN KITTELL: Oh, man, I haven't heard it put that way, but you're right. They're all retired weather equipment. So we have things from what's called an anemometer, which is used to measure the wind speed and direction, and even some gauges that will collect rainfall and tell us how much rain is falling. But we also have weather buoys which are displayed out here. They bob up and down.
There's a cool instrument inside of it, a sensor inside of it that's very similar to things on phones and Nintendo switches that can detect the way that you're tilting the controller, a similar type of instrument called an accelerometer that can actually detect when the buoy bobs up and down to tell how big the waves are.
SANDEN TOTTEN: How would you describe these two round buoys in front of us?
RYAN KITTELL: They're in desperate need of a paint job, I'll describe it that way. There's paint peeling. They haven't really seen service for probably over 10 years. The ones that are out in the water actually look nicer. They're painted and well-lit.
And it really does help us to make better forecasts to predict how big these waves are. Because if you're on a boat, you don't want big waves because it's easy to get seasick, but it also can be really dangerous. So if we know how big the waves are, we can alert people, and these buoys are really big tools for that.
SANDEN TOTTEN: They look like, I would say, like really big Christmas ornaments or maybe like that one's red on the bottom and white on the top, it reminds me of a Poké Ball. Do you play Pokemon at all, or do you know about Pokemon?
RYAN KITTELL: I have three kids, and they are all into Pokemon. For sure, yeah, for the paint and color, it's a good description with the white on the top and the red on the bottom.
SANDEN TOTTEN: They're big. They look like those giant exercise balls sometimes people use to sit on or to do sit-ups on.
RYAN KITTELL: That's a great example, one of those big exercise balls. And then it has a light on the top because they're out in the waters where boaters are so that boaters can see it, especially at night, because otherwise, they'd be really easy to run over, and that's not good for anybody. They are anchored by a very heavy long chain.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, yeah, that is a beefy chain. It looks like something you'd chain up a monster with maybe.
RYAN KITTELL: It does. It definitely has that look.
SANDEN TOTTEN: That's a way to it.
[CHAINS CLANKING]
These seem like they're pretty simple tools from what you're describing to me. They float in the water. They have a little device inside them that measure how much they're tilting and how much they're going up and down. They have a light so that people see them. But where does that data go, and how do they get it to you?
RYAN KITTELL: So on top of these buoys are a radio antenna. And that signal, the data gets transmitted through a radio frequency to receivers on the coast. They'll get that data, they'll process it, and then they'll send it out to the world, including to our office. There's usually maybe a 10-minute delay, but it all happens pretty fast.
SANDEN TOTTEN: What's powering all that inside the buoy?
RYAN KITTELL: These particular ones actually have a really big battery. Some of them might have a solar panel, but they do have really large batteries. And they do have to get replaced regularly.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Well, Ryan, this was so cool. Thank you so much for showing us all this.
RYAN KITTELL: So glad you can come out.
SANDEN TOTTEN: And thank you for your service, retired buoys.
MOLLY BLOOM: There are all different ways that people track, measure, and predict the weather.
PEDRO: Like radars, satellites, balloons, and buoys.
MOLLY BLOOM: And all of this different weather data is constantly being fed into giant supercomputers. Just like Superman is like 10,000 times stronger than us regular people, supercomputers are like 10,000 times stronger than the computers we have at home or school. These computers take the data and make predictions about what the weather will do.
PEDRO: The more data they have, the better the prediction will be.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's why the Weather Service uses so many different tools so that the computer can get the best possible picture of what's going on at sea, on land, and in the air.
PEDRO: And because the National Weather Service is a public service, everybody can use these predictions.
MOLLY BLOOM: Like, for example, to make a weather/daily affirmations app.
[CHIME]
ANNOUNCER: Not even this weekend's sun can outshine your brightness and warmth.
MOLLY BLOOM: A sunny day!
PEDRO: Wahoo!
MOLLY BLOOM: Time to plan a picnic.
[THEME MUSIC]
The National Weather Service operates more than 100 separate weather stations.
PEDRO: These stations make more than a million weather forecasts a year across the country.
MOLLY BLOOM: They make these forecasts using equipment like radar, satellites, weather balloons and weather buoys.
PEDRO: And they process it all by using the strongest computers in the world.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's it for this episode of Brains On. This episode was written by--
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Nico Gonzalez Wisler--
SANDEN TOTTEN: Sanden Totten--
MOLLY BLOOM: --and me, Molly Bloom. It was edited by--
SHAHLA FARZAN: Shahla Farzan.
MOLLY BLOOM: We had engineering help from Eric Ramani and Deborah Reeves, with sound design by--
RACHEL BREES: Rachel Brees.
MOLLY BLOOM: --and fact-checking by--
REBECCA RAND: Rebecca Rand.
MOLLY BLOOM: Original theme music by--
MARC SANCHEZ: Marc Sanchez.
PEDRO: We had production help from the rest of the Brains On Universe team--
ROSIE DUPONT: Rosie DuPont.
ANNA GOLDFIELD: Anna Goldfield.
RUBY GUTHRIE: Ruby Guthrie.
LAUREN HUMBERT: Lauren Humbert.
JOSHUA RAY: Joshua Ray.
MARC SANCHEZ: Marc Sanchez.
CHARLOTTE TRAVER: Charlotte Traver.
ANNA WEIGEL: Anna Weigel.
PEDRO: And--
ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Aron Woldeslassie.
MOLLY BLOOM: Beth Pearlman is our executive producer, and the executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kavati and Joanne Griffith. Special thanks to Vinícius Cruzeiro Fabiana Marques, and Daniel Doktori.
PEDRO: Brains On is a nonprofit public radio program.
MOLLY BLOOM: There are lots of ways to support the show, subscribe to Brains On Universe on YouTube, where you can watch animated versions of some of your favorite episodes, or head to brainson.org.
PEDRO: While you're there, you can send us mystery sounds, drawings, and questions.
MOLLY BLOOM: Pedro, are you ready to hear the mystery sound again?
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right, here it is.
[MYSTERY SOUND]
What do you think?
PEDRO: Now that I think of it, I think it's probably just coins dropping on the floor, like if I accidentally drop a coin while playing heads or tails.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hmm, I like it. I like it. I know you like to play heads and tails a lot. It's one of your favorite things, right?
PEDRO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: I think that's a great guess. Should we hear the answer?
PEDRO: Yeah.
CAMILLE: My name is Camille, and I'm from SFO, California. That was the sound of marbles dropping on the floor.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, marbles dropping on the floor.
PEDRO: Ah.
MOLLY BLOOM: You were not that far off. You thought something was dropping on the floor. You just thought it was coins. I think we're giving ourselves partial credit for that, for sure.
PEDRO: Yeah.
[MYSTERY SOUND]
MOLLY BLOOM: Now it's time for the Brains Honor Roll. These are the incredible kids who keep the show going with their questions, ideas, mystery sounds, drawings, and high fives.
[LISTING HONOR ROLL]
[THEME MUSIC] Brains On, high five
MOLLY BLOOM: We'll be back next week with an episode all about what it's like to be an astronaut.
PEDRO: Thanks for listening.
Transcription services provided by 3Play Media.
