How recent storms and hot air balloons are similar

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — It’s been a stormy start to summer in Mid-Michigan, with flooding, damaging winds, hail, and even tornadoes across our area, but have you ever stopped to think about why those storms even formed in the first place? And how? It’s actually tied directly to the sun.

The sun releases radiation that travels through space and then gets to Earth. Once it travels through the atmosphere, it eventually ends up hitting the ground where it’s absorbed. As a result, the ground releases heat, creating what’s known as a hot air parcel.

Think of it kind of like a bubble of hot air. That bubble is forced to rise when we get a cold front to move in. That colder air goes underneath the bubble, pushes it up in the atmosphere, and when it goes up it starts to cool. As the air cools, so does the water within that air parcel, so we start to form clouds, rain, and storms! It’s an interesting process, and it’s mirrored by hot air balloons.

This past week I went to the Battle Creek Field of Flight Air Show and Balloon Festival in search of a pilot who could help me explain this science, and I found one! His name’s Pat Rolfe, and he’s been a hot air balloon pilot for over 20 years in the skies across Mid-Michigan.

After a weather briefing, and taking some time to calculate the trajectory of our flights, we all headed over to the field to get the balloons ready for flying.

To get the balloons in the air, first, you have to fill them with air. This is what creates our air parcel, just like with thunderstorms.

Next, you fill it with fire! That’s what heats the balloon to the point that the air can lift you off of the ground.

Once you’re up in the air, it becomes a battle between hot and cold air to try to stay afloat.

“The balloon is always cooling, so I have to burn every so often to maintain level flight,” said Rolfe. “If I want to drop, I let it cool and drop. If I want to go up, I heat it more and go up.”

This process of heating and cooling is continued until eventually you want to end your flight and you head down towards the ground.

“I do have a vent on the top that I can open to let hot air out if I want to descend like when landing,” said Rolfe.

If you want to see hot air balloons in action, it’s actually surprisingly easy in Mid-Michigan this month. We have two big events going on, both of them in Jackson!

There’s the US Women’s National Hot Air Balloon Championship, which runs from July 15-20, as well as the Hot Air Jubilee, which runs from July 19-21. Both of these events feature daytime launches as well as night glow events around dusk. You can find more information about the events on their website hotairjubilee.com .

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