New AWOS Metar Sites Now Available

[vortex95]

00V - Colorado Springs/Meadow Lake CO

4A6 - Scottsboro AL

HEQ - Holyoke CO

STK - Sterling CO

[Eskimo Joe]

Where do you get these notifications from? Are there any planned in Pennsylvania?

[vortex95]

<br />Where do you get these notifications from?  Are there any planned in Pennsylvania?<br />

There is no official notification that I know of for AWOS sites. All that have come on-line for some time are either locally or privately

owned (i.e. non-federal) and are installed/maintained by several different AWOS unit vendors.

As to how I find out, I just come across new Metar reports that show up on the NOAAPort feed from NCEP.

LMO - Longmont CO AWOS Metars were just added Friday as well.

[dryadiabat]

First of all, I wanted to say thanks to vortex95 for these updates.

Do you (or anyone) else have any knowledge as to how/why so many AWOS sites have come online recently? I am very curious to the point that I have made trips to two local airports (one with ASOS and another with a non-transmitting AWOS) in an attempt get information as to why this might be occurring and to learn more about the communications links between the AWOS sites and the rest of the world. In the area that I live in, very few of the AWOS sites are accessible other than through directly dialing into them (i.e., they do not transmit to NADIN). It is unfortunate because there are VERY large gaps where the only data available are CWOP stations that have pretty substantial data quality issues and are usable only to a limited degree by the meteorology community. If the AWOS stations were brought online, they would largely fill this gap.

My visits to the airports didn't really help me gain much of an understanding, but was somewhat encouraging in that the airport staff that I talked to were very interested in seeing this data sent to NADIN not only for use by flight services, but so public and private meteorologists could easily access it as well. What I was able to glean confirmed my suspicions that it was in large part a budget issue. I wonder if the majority of the airports we've seen come online recently are funding upgrades/retrofitting to bring their stations online through their own budget or if there are other funding sources out there in which they are tapping into for the upgrades. I suppose it depends in large part on who owns the stations. In my area, they are all state owned.

Any thoughts or information?

[vortex95]

<br />First of all, I wanted to say thanks to vortex95 for these updates. <br /><br />Do  you (or anyone) else have any knowledge as to how/why so many AWOS  sites have come online recently? I am very curious to the point that I  have made trips to two local airports (one with ASOS and another with a  non-transmitting AWOS) in an attempt get information as to why this  might be occurring and to learn more about the communications links  between the AWOS sites and the rest of the world. In the area that I  live in, very few of the AWOS sites are accessible other than through  directly dialing into them (i.e., they do not transmit to NADIN). It is  unfortunate because there are VERY large gaps where the only data  available are CWOP stations that have pretty substantial data quality  issues and are usable only to a limited degree by the meteorology  community. If the AWOS stations were brought online, they would largely  fill this gap. <br /><br />My visits to the airports didn't really help me  gain much of an understanding, but was somewhat encouraging in that the  airport staff that I talked to were very interested in seeing this data sent to NADIN not only for use by flight  services, but so public and private meteorologists could easily access it as well. What I was  able to glean confirmed my suspicions that it was in large part a budget  issue. I wonder if the majority of the airports we've seen come online  recently are funding upgrades/retrofitting to bring their stations  online through their own budget or if there are other funding sources  out there in which they are tapping into for the upgrades. I suppose it depends in large part on who  owns the stations. In my area, they are all state  owned. <br /><br />Any thoughts or information?<br />

It all comes down to funding available basically. Perhaps there are more AWOS added at the end of the year b/c agencies have $$

still in their budgets that they did not use, but initially thought they would, so they use them all up to make sure they do not get

any cuts the following year. Just a guess on my part.