CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION — Weather is always a factor in rocket launches. On Thursday, Spectrum News got an inside look at how the 45th Weather Squadron puts together their forecast.

The group uses two types of weather balloons, sent up four hours before a launch time.

One of them is equipped with temperature and humidity sensors. Another balloon has sensors that gauge the wind speeds.

During launches balloons are sent up every twenty minutes. All of the data gathered is sent to their ground station.

 “We get that data every second and then we look at every 100 feet of that data. So we have meteorologists on staff who will quality control that data and send it out to the Launch Customers, Weather squadron and then the Weather community,” said Supervisor of Weather Operations Suzanne Siverling with the 45th Weather Squadron.

The 45th Weather Squadron stays busy year round with daily forecasts.

They send up balloons at the same time each day and share that information with forecasters.