Fire destroys NSSL field research equipment

Utility vehicle inside the facility.

NSSL's 4,000-square-foot leased equipment storage facility, known as the "Balloon Barn," was destroyed in a late afternoon fire on July 3, 2001. No one was injured since the warehouse was unoccupied at the time. The estimated cost to replace the unique research equipment is $2.16 million. "This fire is a major setback to our research and development efforts," said Dr. James F. Kimpel, NSSL Director. "What we learn through our field campaigns--basic knowledge of storm structure, testing of new detection and measuring devices, and development of new forecasting techniques--will be significantly impacted."

Equipment lost includes one of two SMART-Radars, a brand new lightning mapping array system, a new mobile laboratory, a mobile mesonet instrumented vehicle, all 12 mobile mesonet roof instrumentation racks, varying numbers of individual mobile mesonet sensors, a Ford Expedition, the entire tool and shop inventory, three atmospheric sounding systems and a large inventory of balloons and radiosondes.

Fire fighters work to put out the fire at NSSL's equipment storage facility. Photo by Bill Carter of The Norman Transcript

The SMART-Radars, mobile C-band doppler radars mounted on a truck, were near completion and scheduled to be used to study hurricanes this fall. The second SMART-Radar was not at the site and was unharmed. The two radars were to be used together to obtain highly detailed three-dimensional pictures of thunderstorms and other severe weather. NSSL, Texas A&M, Texas Tech University, and the University of Oklahoma are collaborators on this project.

The destroyed lightning mapping array equipment was to be installed during late July. The system was created by engineers at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology for NSSL and OU researchers. It was expected to provide 3-D lightning data over a portion of central Oklahoma, and 2-D data over most of the state. Preliminary research indicates the lighting data provided by this system could improve the quality of computer-based forecast models and lead to better forecasts.

NSSL's newest mobile lab, NSSL5, was also destroyed in the fire. Scientists in the field use mobile laboratories to launch, track and receive data from weather balloons.

The complete story and more pictures can be found at:
http:// www.nssl.noaa.gov/headlines/fire.html