Extreme heat can
ground hot air balloons
by YALE CLIMATE CONNECTIONS TEAM
JUNE 7, 2021
Each year, people travel to hot air balloon festivals to see giant, colorful balloons floating up into the sky. Some people even take a ride.
“Just being up in the air in a balloon is so different than anything else,” Jason Jones says. “It’s just very peaceful.”
He says the basic science behind ballooning is simple. Warmer air is less dense than cooler air, so it rises.
“It’s literally just heating the inside air of the balloon hotter than the ambient temperature to get the balloon to lift,” he says.
So on warmer days, the air inside the balloon has to be heated even more. That means running the balloon’s burner more, and on an already hot day, the heat it throws off can make passengers uncomfortable.
And when it’s really hot out, the heat needed to take off and fly can even damage the balloon...
And as the climate warms, extreme heat is growing more common in many regions. So there could be more hot days when balloons must stay deflated on the ground, instead of rising skyward.
