The morning was crisp as the eight taxis pulled into the gravel parking lot of the weather station at the flight tower at the Thompson Airport. The sun shone brightly through the taxi windows as we entered the frosty air.
Brian Leitch was our guide as we toured the flight tower. He told us about his fantastic job, and how he and his fellow workers use weather instruments to check the weather, and measure rain, snow and the clouds.
We began our tour with the weather instruments. First up was the snow gauge. The gauge was a huge funnel that went past Leitch's waist. The snow gauge was used to catch and measure snowfall. Now we'll be needing that instrument soon! Next was the rain gauge. Its job was the same as the snow gauge, only it measured rain instead of snow. The one that is my personal favourite is the laser. It was used to blast lasers up into the sky to measure the height of the clouds. The thermometer was another tool they use. This instrument is used to measure temperature and was kept in a box for protection. A tool I thought was really neat was the tipping rain gauge. Rain pours through a small funnel that drains onto a small teeter-totter made of metal. When one side of the teeter-totter becomes heavier than the other, it tips. There is a cord underground that is connected to a pen at the top of the flight tower and it is all connected to the tipping rain gauge. So when the rain tips the teeter-totter the pen makes a mark on the chart. Once in a while the people who work at the flight tower count the marks and then inform pilots and Environment Canada about the number of marks.
Leitch let three lucky people release weather balloons into the sky. Weather balloons are filled with helium so they can float up into the sky. The three people who released the balloons were Emily J., Kaylee S. and Kaleb H. They flew up, up and away! It took two minutes for the balloons to vanish into the clouds. Kaleb's balloon got stuck in a hydro tower. It was pretty funny. Eventually the balloon got free and floated away. Each balloon rose 500 feet per minute. The balloons vanished after two minutes. The clouds were a thousand feet high on Oct. 6. Another way to figure out the cloud height was to take the temperature, and subtract the dew point from it, and then multiply the answer by 400.
I thought that the field trip was great and that Ms. McCartney put a lot of effort into creating a great experience for my class and I, thank-you so much. I would also like to thank our wonderful chaperones: Mrs. House, Mrs. Hykaway, Mrs. McKay, Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Jorganni, Mrs. McCartney and Mrs. Dawson. I would also like to give a huge thanks to Mr. Leitch for being such an awesome guide. Thank-you also much! Finally, after a fantastic morning of weather-filled facts, the taxis pulled into the gravel parking lot to take us all back to Burntwood School.
Katelyn Norrie is a Grade 5 student at Burntwood Elementary School.
