“… “A lot of people don’t even realize this job exists,” said Behringer, who is a meteorologist with the weather service’s Bay Area office but spoke to KQED after hours in his union capacity. “Ninety-five percent of the delays at San Francisco International Airport are actually due to the weather.”
Meteorologists located at the weather service offices in Seattle, Washington, and Palmdale, California, are helping, but those teams are also short-staffed, Behringer said.
… The meteorologist works with the air traffic controllers at a command center in Fremont. Their role is to provide real-time weather updates seven days a week, forecasting any turbulence from around 40,000 feet in the air down to the runway.
This includes issuing pre-shift briefings, weather advisories and coordinating with the weather service’s Aviation Weather Center. The work is similar to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s public-facing weather service located in Monterey. But the center’s forecasters are looking for threats to airplanes, thunderstorms, strong wind, volcanic ash and anything else that could affect flights.
…
There are
21 of these weather service units nationwide who work alongside air traffic controllers. NOAA and the FAA founded the program after a Southern Airways flight flew into a thunderstorm and crashed while en route to Atlanta in 1977. An investigation found that air traffic controllers needed timely weather information.
While Behringer said the safety of passengers is not in jeopardy, a single sick day could create problems.
The meteorologists are employees of the weather service, which pays for their time off. The FAA funds their salaries. …”
The federal hiring freeze has left a vital Bay Area aviation weather unit with just one meteorologist, risking flight delays and disruptions. The unit oversees a vast airspace, ensuring the safe landing of over a million flights yearly.
www.kqed.org
luck.
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