Pizitz students release weather balloon

The sixth grade class at Pizitz Middle School gathered on the school’s intramural football field to release a weather balloon Monday, Oct. 30.

The students began their weather unit in classes about a month ago, and the release of the balloon was the culmination of those lessons. Equipped with a radiosonde and three GoPros, the balloon collects information about atmospheric conditions such as atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity and wind speed.

The expenses for the balloon were covered through a PTO grant of $1,200.

Students were involved in the physical launch as well as in the preparation process, measuring wind conditions with an anemometer to determine which direction would be best for the launch. Students even used their knowledge of weather conditions to select Monday as the ideal launch date.

“[The students] have been preparing for this,” said Diane McAliley, the sixth grade teacher who helped spearhead the project. “They’ve been tracking the atmospheric conditions.”

The 440 students in this year’s sixth grade class were the third consecutive class to launch a balloon over a period of two years.

“We started this is March of 2016, and then we did it in May of 2017 for last year’s group [of 6th graders],” McAliley said.

President of The Weather Factory and AlabamaWx Weather Blog contributor Bill Murray visited the sixth grade class over a period of two days to help teach students about atmospheric conditions. His wife, who introduced him to McAliley in the project’s inaugural year, attended this year’s launch. 

“When you get the pictures back, you can see the atmosphere and the curvature of the earth,” Murray said. “It’s really neat.”

The balloon remained in the air until about 2 p.m., before it burst and went into freefall.

“It can get to be the size of a kitchen,” Murray said. “It’s huge before it bursts, and then it freefalls for a long time before the parachute catches.”

The balloon landed in Carrollton, Georgia Monday afternoon.