 Looking east towards the Sandia Mountains during the 2017 Balloon Fiesta. Taken by balloon pilot Patrick Chando. New Mexico is known as the Land of Enchantment because of its scenic beauty and 300+ days of sunshine a year. If you happen to visit the state’s largest city of Albuquerque during the first two weeks of October, along with nearly a million other visitors, hundreds of balloons take to the skies during the world’s largest hot air balloon festival. Albuquerque is a prime location for ballooning due to the terrain and a stable surface layer that forms on these mornings – surrounded by the Sandia and Manzano mountains to the east, volcanoes and the Rio Grande Valley to the west. A circulation known as the “Albuquerque Box” allows pilots to ride the wind currents and return to their starting location at the balloon park. Throughout the night, the air near the ground is cooled through radiational cooling. At lower elevations, this cool dense air flows downslope from north to south through the Rio Grande Valley. This layer of cooler air occurs below a temperature inversion, separating it from the warmer air above. At higher elevations, these winds tend to be southerly due to the overall climatological synoptic pattern. Hot air balloons fly through a process known as convection – the air inside the balloon is less dense than the surrounding air, causing the heated balloon to rise. A pilot may head south towards downtown upon an early morning takeoff and as the balloon ascends, upper-level winds will point the balloon back north. On average, this circulation occurs about twice during the first two weeks of October. The box dissipates by mid-morning as the sun heats the ground and breaks up the inversion through turbulent mixing. However, there can be storms of the cool transition season that can bring strong winds, precipitation, snow, and even thunderstorms south through the Rocky Mountains. From 1974 to 2019, there have been at least 3.8 days of precipitation during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, an average peak wind gust of 41 mph, and an average minimum temperature of 48.1 degrees. Snow has fallen during balloon fiesta on October 12, 1986 and October 12, 1997. If there’s one factor more than another that affects balloon flight is wind speed. If winds at the surface exceed 10 mph, balloons cannot fly. Ideal wind speeds would be in the 4-8 mph range. Strong winds cannot only damage the balloon upon inflation, but can lead to hard landings. If winds aloft are more than 20 mph, this could be another reason to ground the flight. Poor visibility less than 1 mile, such as from fog, mist, haze, or rain may also ground balloon flights (and no flights at night). Thunderstorms can heavily damage a balloon through lightning, hail, or gusty winds. The FAA requires that there must be no approaching thunderstorms within 100 miles of the launch site in order to proceed. Sunrises and sunsets, the marriage of the sky and land. If you happen to come in October, at the time of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, plan to be treated to a show of unparalleled beauty as hundreds of hot air balloons travel across the Albuquerque landscape. be in town during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, plan to be To learn more about balloon fiesta throughout the decades and other events, please click here to learn more about weather history! For the kiddos: learn how to make your own hot air balloon! http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/tornact6.html https://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments/heavyair.html ©2022 Meteorologist Sharon Sullivan References:
Photos from the 2015 Balloon Fiesta- Sharon Sullivan.
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