Weather flight providing information to help commanders stay a step ahead

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jaimi Upthegrove
  • 482nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HOMESTEAD AIR RESERVE BASE, Fla. --  Weather affects the Air Force mission on a daily basis. Considerations are made, operations are adjusted ... and sometimes the weather forces more reconsiderations and readjustments.

Weather's mercurial nature requires those who analyze it to be deft at adjusting for the little idiosyncrasies weather often manifests in order to keep the Air Force flying, fighting and winning.

Homestead Air Reserve Base's weather flight remains dedicated to identifying those idiosyncrasies to help the Airmen of the 482nd Fighter Wing accomplish their mission.
"We provide base support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, primarily to flying customers," said Mr. Jonathon George, 482nd Fighter Wing weather flight station chief. "Our mission is to provide human and resource protection by giving accurate weather reports, enabling commanders to plan appropriately."

The weather flight compiles multiple reports for the various consumers they service, taking into consideration the mission, aircraft type, and any limitations of the aircrew. These reports shape how each affected unit plans their day. The weather flight serves everyone at Homestead Air Reserve Base from Special Operations Command South, the 93rd Fighter Squadron, the Florida Air National Guard, Coast Guard, Customs and Border Patrol, and any transient aircrew that come through the base.

Each client requires a different set of data from surface winds, climb winds, adverse condition advisories, wetness of the runway, wind speed and direction at various levels, cloud ceiling, and destination weather.

The weather flight compiles this information from a myriad of different Department of Defense websites that are dedicated to weather information, from national weather service sites, from readings from equipment on the flight line, and by observing the activity on the radars and making forecasts. They organize this information into an organized, customer-specific report, and then update the reports throughout the day.
"We keep the commanders informed on the weather conditions so they can make appropriate decisions when planning missions, contingencies or emergencies," said Mr. Wesley Martin, weather flight meteorological technician.

Most of the information used by the weather flight comes from various weather information sites, however, Homestead ARB is capable of meeting its own needs with the different meteorological devices that can be seen out on the flightline and one hand-held all-inclusive portable device.

The flightline features a windmill-style anemometer, transmissometer, and laser ceilometer. An anemometer measures wind direction and speed, the transmissometer measure visibility by shooting a laser between two lenses, the laser ceilometer measures the distance to the cloud base, and they all report into the automatic meteorological station, or FMQ 19, a system which also measures the barometric pressure.

Should any of the equipment fail, they have what is called a Kestrel 4,000, or pocket weather tracker, which measures wind speed, temperature and pressure.

Each individual in the weather flight has had copious amounts of experience in observing and forecasting weather patterns.

The weather flight is comprised of five civilian employees, four meteorological technicians, and one station chief.

"In our flight, we have a combined experience of over 100 years," said Martin. "We're all veterans and that experience and training directly translates to our jobs here."

Most of their formal training is conducted at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. They go through six months of forecasting training there, then intense on-the-job-training for three years at one of the main weather hubs, and then return to Keesler AFB for three months of observation training before being shipped to their initial duty station.

"We have a fairly lengthy, rigorous training program," said Martin. "It thoroughly prepares you for the demands of the job."

Even with their training and experience, hurricane season is anxiety ridden for the weather flight.

"June to November is a very agonizing time for us," said George. "We're avidly watching the Atlantic for tropical storm or hurricane formations that may come within 500 miles of the base."

During this time, the weather flight's main concern is keeping the commanders informed so that they can make appropriate decisions with regards to protecting the base's assets. When a hurricane has been detected and will likely come close to, or directly hit the base, the weather flight will gather the information from the National Hurricane Center's reports and radars and the station chief will amass the information into a presentation that will be disseminated to all leadership periodically as the hurricane progresses and moves closer.

Being on the southern tip of Florida and surrounded by mostly water presents many challenges when forecasting for the local area.

"When you're in the Midwest, you can see storms coming, but due to our proximity to the ocean, storms usually form overhead or five to 10 miles out," said George. "It's similar to being on an island, but with our combined experience we are able to forecast with 90 percent accuracy."

Due to the location of Homestead ARB, weather moves in quickly, forming in the blink of an eye. For example, George remembers a microburst he encountered in the spring of 2012.

Microbursts are incredibly dangerous for aircraft of any kind. These weather anomalies are a localized intense downdraft of air that occurs at the end of a storm. This causes rapid changes in wind direction and speed. In George's instance, wind speeds were recorded at 75 mph and the area was hit with golf- ball-sized hail as a result of this microburst. Luckily, the microburst was just outside of base.

"The Miami radar couldn't detect how big the storm was so it seemed like a little rain shower, but then a microburst hit right over the Homestead-Miami Speedway," said George. "It was so intense there were 75 mph winds and hail right outside the base, but on base it barely rained."

The weather can make or break a mission. It can be devastating, but it can also be a benefit. The weather flight also advises on how to use the weather to benefit the mission.

"In Normandy, during World War II, aircraft were grounded due to dangerous weather," said Martin. "We were able to look at our radars and give advanced notice of a 12 hour window that would be safe for them to get out there and fight and bring supplies. It changed the course of the war, and without weather advising command, they would have missed that opportunity."