Of course, we can't launch without good weather! Delta Weather Officer Joel Tumbiolo is here with us today to tell us what's in store. Welcome, Joel.
Thank you, Bruce. Glad to be here.
Summertime weather patterns are in full swing right now across Florida, and what kind of weather problems do you have to watch out for this time of year?
Well, as you mentioned, during the summer months -- June, July, August -- that is our peak thunderstorm time of the year.
So every afternoon, Florida is notorious for having thunderstorms in the area.
It's just a matter of where they form and what direction they move once they form.
So we'll be monitoring any thunderstorms and, again, the main thing from those thunderstorms is lightning.
We do follow the lightning and also the winds from the thunderstorms.
Okay, thanks. Well, since we're launching this afternoon, how does the forecast look for today?
Well, relatively speaking, for, again, for an afternoon and evening launch in the middle of August, we're looking pretty good.
We will have thunderstorms forming in the early afternoon, mainly to our west,
and they will slowly work their way towards the central part of, interior parts of Florida as the afternoon wears on.
So, we are expecting thunderstorms to our west.
We will be monitoring any anvil clouds from those thunderstorms, because they can not be within 10 miles of the launch site,
and we'll also be monitoring the ground-level winds at the time liftoff is expected.
But we are expecting a 70 percent chance of having good weather for the launch this evening.
Okay, well, 70 percent is good, so...Joel, thanks for joining us.
Thank you.