After the first time, Andrew Johnson was curious. After a few more, he was annoyed. After more than a dozen, he was angry.
Johnson found at least 17 weather balloons and/or associated components washed up on Lake Michigan beaches in Benzie and Leelanau counties in recent months. The balloons carry an instrument known as a radiosonde and belong to the National Weather Service (NWS), a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The radiosondes carried by these balloons are used to collect valuable data high in the upper atmosphere, and officials say they play a key role in understanding and predicting the weather. But no matter how useful they are, Johnson and others are disturbed when they find so many large, heavy balloons on scenic beaches. Much of it was damaged and broken into pieces — including ropes, thick rubber balloons, plastic components and Styrofoam — making the problem worse.
“It's just a ton of garbage,” Johnson says. Indicator. “Trash is trash, it's trash, and if anyone like you or me does that, we're going to get a big fine.”
Johnson, a Lake Anne resident who runs a local landscaping business, spends a lot of time at the beach collecting rocks and relaxing with his family in all four seasons. Recently, five devices were found in different conditions during a single walk near Northport.
“They're pretty heavy for a balloon. There are parachutes attached to them, and there's a little plastic rope tied with zip ties around the Styrofoam shell,” he says. “If you put it all together, they're probably five pounds on the low end. These are big things.”
The balloons bear an inscription saying they are not dangerous, and ask those who find them to “recycle or dispose of them properly.” Johnson has thrown away everything he finds and gets especially upset when he thinks about all the balloons he has no Finding.
“With everything I see, how many go into the water and drown? How many go into the woods?” he says. “We're not talking about a few. These things are over. “It's a really depressing thought to think there's more trash out there that we don't see.”
He cited at least one case where he found a bird that appeared to be trapped in one of these balloons.
Sherry Rado is an avid photographer and rock fisherman who also spends a lot of time at the local beaches. Like Johnson, she has found several on Leelanau County beaches recently.
“It's very frustrating to me when we are expected to do our part to comply with rules and regulations when properly disposing of hazardous waste, but the government doesn't do that,” she says. Indicator. “NOAA labels these packages as non-hazardous, which is not true. Everything this package is made of has some level of toxicity. When I find dead waterfowl along the beaches and the cause of the deaths is entanglement in the lines, Or swallowing debris, that makes me even more angry.”
said Michael Mosher, public affairs specialist and meteorologist with the National Weather Service Indicator He emailed that no one would be available to speak by phone before the deadline for this story. But he provided a written statement:
“The National Weather Service has been launching weather balloons since the 1930s to capture data in the upper atmosphere that we can't get any other way. This data is critical to weather model performance and forecast accuracy.
Technology has come a long way over the past 80 years, and we have made great progress to reduce environmental impacts. We've reduced the amount of materials used to build balloons by about 20 percent in the past 10 years, and radiosondes weigh four ounces or less today, compared to 2 pounds in the 1990s. Today, balloons are made from natural, biodegradable latex, and the canopy and string are also biodegradable over time.
We encourage individuals who find radiosonde devices to dispose of them locally in accordance with local laws. Strong winds often cause radiosondes to land more than 100 miles from the offices that launch them. The National Weather Service will continue to find ways to reduce environmental impacts and work closely with our consumables vendors to source more biodegradable materials.
