Local National Weather Service office launching balloons to track, forecast Hurricane Irma

It’s one of many NWS offices in the region conducting flights every 6 hours until further notice. The special balloons will help meteorologists better sample upper-level patterns to help create more consistent and accurate model forecasts, according to Brian Haines of the Wilmington NWS office.

>>Just how massive is Hurricane Irma?

Hurricane tracks are very dependent upon upper-level wind flow patterns - and believe it or not - the state of our atmosphere has an effect on movement of storms in the Atlantic, among other places.

>>LIVE updates on Hurricane Irma