Throwing yourself into your work!

I was working the Spain and Morocco weather...it was a little dicey in Spain...with gusts to over 50 mph at Zaragosa...This amusing sidelight emerged as Spaceflight Meteorology Group in Houston monitored the TAL (Transatlantic Abort Landing) sites for STS-90.

A strong low pressure system just north of Spain was causing very strong winds at Zaragosa Spain. This young weather observer was to trying to launch weather balloons with winds gusting to 45 knots (52 mph). As you can see, it got interesting:

The first hand story from a colleague in Spain goes:
Essentially [a military aerographer], from Rota who weighs 100 lbs if she was wet, went out to launch crucial weather balloons while winds were averaging 30 knots with occasional gusts to 45 knots. You can imagine this balloon dragging her all over the place. She never actually fell flat on the ground or was dragged, but she lost her balance several times (more than we could count).

The L-1 balloon went horizontal, right towards the fire trucks (30 yards away). The balloon cleared the last truck by less than 10 feet, but the sonde appeared to be a goner. Somehow, the winds died down just enough to allow the balloon to acquire more vertical motion, and the sonde barely cleared the driver-side door on the fire truck. Would have made a great video.

Lesson learn: Bring camcorder next time! (kicking myself)

Spain weather people promised pictures of the event. They said they were still looking for the young lady in a field (possible exaggeration). Ha!