Pop Goes the Balloon! What Happens when a Weather Balloon Reaches 30,000 m asl? Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Did you ever wonder what happens when a rubber weather balloon reaches maximum altitude and bursts? A weather balloon carrying a radiosonde or ozonesonde released at the Earth’s surface is generally about 1.5 m in diameter at launch. At 30,000 m asl it has expanded to about 10 m in diameter and bursts at temperatures often colder than –40°C, sometimes as cold as –75°C. With a volume 100 times greater than when the balloon was released at ground level, the deflation is not a gentle leak but an explosion!