Sunny, with a chance of weather balloons

From Nov. 10 to Jan. 22, folks in and around UVic may be surprised to sight some UFOs (unusual floating objects) in the skies above campus. No cause for alarm: it's just Environment Canada launching dozens of instrumented weather balloons from their weather station in the forest biology compound on UVic's Cedar Hill Corner property. The data-collecting balloons are part of the Olympic Mountains Experiment (OLYMPEX) project, led by NASA and the University of Washington. OLYMPEX is measuring precipitation levels around the complex terrain of the Olympic Peninsula and coastal mountains, using ground, aerial and satellite technologies.