Heat will build over the Intermountain West and the Southwest the next couple of days. Lightning from dry thunderstorms can create new fire starts and combined with gusty winds may cause a fire to rapidly grow in Oregon and northern California. Elevated fire weather conditions are also expected in the Great Basin. Flash flooding will be possible in Arizona and west Texas, especially in burn scars. Read More >
SMG will be part of the weather team for the NASA Commercial Crew Program's Crew Flight Test scheduled to launch Tuesday May 21 at 3:43 PM CDT aboard the Boeing Starliner capsule. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) as a test flight to demonstrate capability to rotate crew.
On launch day SMG will be providing NASA flight controllers and managers with forecasts assessing the impact and risk of Search-And-Rescue (SAR) weather in the north Atlantic Ocean should a problem arise requiring an aborted mission splashdown post-launch into the water. SMG will also provide landing weather forecasts for contingency cases when the Starliner reaches orbit but is unable to dock with the ISS. Forecasts for launch pad and ground operations weather at the Kennedy Space Center will be provided by the US Space Force 45th Weather Squadron.
After an approximately week long stay on the ISS Butch and Suni will return to Earth at a landing site in the western United States, weather permitting. SMG will be issuing the landing forecasts for the End-of-Mission. SMG works closely with DoD range weather personnel who provide weather observations from the landing sites as well as additional weather insight.
As launch and landing near we'll provide some weather forecast information. Stay tuned!
