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Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

nco.ncep.noaa.gov

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Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#71

Post by webdoodle »

teeray wrote: post #40
zackbloom wrote: post #12

Unlike the NOTAM outage, a METAR outage will and should actually affect flights. Without weather at your destination it becomes impossible to know if it’s safe to land there. The forecasts (TAF) are actually used more in flight planning, but actual weather is very valuable while enroute, when not close enough to hear weather over the radio from the destination airport.

Unrelated to aviation, but I actually find METARs and TAFs are useful for hiking and skiing. I use the altimeter settings for my altimeter when hiking, and knowing the altitude of cloud layers is useful to know what the visibility will be like on the mountain (you have to do a bit of math with the airport elevation and the mountain’s elevation, but hey—it works!).

I like your idea of visibility a lot, and would like to know more. Are you using a barometric altimeter? I use one hiking, but mainly for dead reckoning using an USGS elevation map. I usually just set my altimeter using those maps.

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#72

Post by themaninthedark »

brookst wrote: post #30
geocrasher wrote: post #26

And then thousands of pilots checked Weather Underground's sister site, Weather Overground...

Never understood why WU went after miners first.

Much easier to predict the weather underground. Dark, damp.

Once you build up credibility for being right, you can expand into other more difficult areas. If you keep predicting for the underground, then it will also help keep you correct average up.

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#74

Post by sitkack »

cratermoon wrote: post #63
sitkack wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You Don’t Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blows

Better stay away from those that carry 'round a fire hose

For those following along, these are lyrics from the Bob Dylan song that is the source of the name for both the Weather Underground website as well as the militant group, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#75

Post by bulldog13 »

drstewart wrote: post #37
ck2 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just swap civil services budget with military budget. Imagine what NASA would do in ten years with Pentagon's budget swapped.

Done. NASA's budget is now $0 though, since the military budget all went to Medicare with nothing left to spare for anything else. Along with the FAA and every other government department.

[flagged]

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#76

Post by dbrueck »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #17
jcutrell wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things I use as a pilot of a single engine piston: - Temp dew point spread - Barometric pressure - TAF / forecast - Wind shear - Freezing level - Cloud tops - Cloud level AGL - visibility measured in actual distance All of these things can’t be measured easily by a human. Visibility is probably the easiest, but can you tell me what the dew point is easily? If I use it, imagine the critical importance for airliners.

I got curious and Google'd some of this: > The dew point in relation to the temperature gives the pilots information about the humidity, and can affect visibility. If the dew point is close to the temperature, humidity is high, which can cause hazy conditions, or even fog.

It's also an easy way to get a rough estimate of the bottom of the clouds: 400' above the ground for every 1degC of difference between the temperature and the dew point.

This is useful for a couple of things, including whether or not you can legally take off or land when flying under visual flight rules.

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#77

Post by ceejayoz »

SamPatt wrote: post #50
ceejayoz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we didn't get to withhold for the decades of bipartisanly meandering Iraq and Afghan war strategies, we definitely don't get to do it for a brief outage of the FAA's weather reporting system. Especially when evaluating the FAA would need to include the absolutely stellar commercial aviation safety record they and the NTSB have created over the last few decades.

I think we should have been able to withhold for unnecessary foreign wars.

How do you imagine this withholding system would work?

Does your tax burden stay the same, and they just make sure your dollars only go to the programs you support? Do they give you a list of every active program? Every single one? What happens with 800 page appropriations bills where you don't support one line-item? Can I opt not to fund the salaries of specific members of Congress? If my neighbor is a veteran, and they annoy me, can I disagree with their VA benefits?

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#78

Post by mardifoufs »

flandish wrote: post #47

Just gotta ask: Southwest, NOTAM, and now this… Is some group pen-testing?

It's weird that americans always seem to have this sort of siege mentality. We already know the causes of the other outages, and they have nothing to do with the foreign interference boogeyman.

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#79

Post by dbrueck »

victortroz wrote: post #57
bombcar wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't there a way to rough out the dew point from the cloud base altitude? I seem to remember that from ground school.

I remember being the other way around, you could estimate height of the cloud based on dew point and base altitude.

Yup! 400' AGL for every 1 deg C of temperature spread.

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#80

Post by drstewart »

nerdponx wrote: post #45
drstewart wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Done. NASA's budget is now $0 though, since the military budget all went to Medicare with nothing left to spare for anything else. Along with the FAA and every other government department.

Citation needed?

You need me to Google Medicare budget and defense budget for you?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_(United_States)

>In 2020, US federal government spending on Medicare was $776.2 billion.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_De...

>Annual budget US$721.5 billion (FY2020)[2]

Hopefully, I won't need a citation that $776 > $721

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