Weather “U” Lesson 17: Aviation Weather

Above we see an airplane flying through the sky leaving behind it a jet contrail. The first part of this lesson is to talk about the importance of weather forecasting on Aviation. The three big things that we as forecasters are concerned about are listed above.

The next part of this chapter is about Weather Hazards which include Turbulence and Icing as you can see above there are various types of each hazard.

The next set of hazards that we have to deal with in Aviation Safety are Wind Shear and Thunderstorms and again they also have various levels of impact on aircraft.

Now we look at how the Aviation Business deals with weather everyday and how we forecasters can provide them help. First we have The Jet Stream and its impacts on flying, next is the fuel consumption of airplanes. Remember your forecast is very important when dealing with aviation.

Above is one of our products that we provide to the aviation industry. This is called a Terminal Aerodome Forecast. What it consit of is basic weather condtions at time of take off along with the forecast for the local station throughout the day. This can also be generated for pilots upon request for their destination and also an alternate landing spot in case of an emergency. You will see we talk about weather condtions and put it into a code format. Also since I built this presentation the NWS has changed to 36hr outlooks now.

Listed above are some other aviation products that can help a forecaster create a weather forecast for future flights throughout the day. The first one is called upper air charts and the second is Pilot Reports.

Now let’s review the chapter and see what you remember from above with these questions.

Enjoy the weather!!