May 3, 2008 Fort Worth NWS office tour

We had a couple of days to kill, so this day we visited the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth, Texas.  Our tour driver, Jennifer Dunn, is a forecaster here and she gave our tour group a group tour.  Thanks, Jen!!

Tour guests wait impatiently for balloon inflation.  Nobody likes a flaccid balloon.

And the wait is well worth it as helium…or is it hydrogen?…fills the balloon.  We all scoff and laugh at the laws of gravity; first scoffing, and then laughing.

And our laughs are turned to tears as our friend the balloon heads towards the cold and lonely tropopause, never to be seen again.

Jennifer explains what this device does.

And she explains that this chair is capable of handling 1400 severe weather reports per hour by telephone and HAM radio, and does not require health care benefits.

Minutes later, Jennifer stands between two rain gages and points in opposite directions.

The Great One, Al Moller, with a print of his Pampa, TX tornado from June 8, 1995.  The tornado is from that date, not the print.  This turned out to be my best tornado photo on the tour.