Weather forecasts impacted by global helium shortage, Russian invasion

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Twice a day, every day of the year, hundreds of weather balloons are launched across the country by the National Weather Service. The recent helium shortage, exacerbated by the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, has caused some of these weather balloon launches to be cancelled.
KXAN has spent the last month investigating the impact these cancellations could have on our forecasts and what is causing the shortage.According to Matthew Brady, a meteorologist with the National Wea