RECUV has received permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to start flying the Tempest UAS over parts of Texas and Oklahoma this spring in the heart of Tornado Alley to conduct weather research. The new “southern COA” complements the 48,000-square-mile “northern COA” previously granted by the FAA that covers portions of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming. The northern and southern COA’s together cover an area about the size of Colorado. The Tempest is an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) with a wingspan of more than 10 feet developed at CU-Boulder to better understand the origin and development of severe storms by flying to their edges and measuring air pressure, temperature, relative humidity and wind velocities.