Loss of ~60 Airport Surface Observations in NC and MD

[Mike Smith]

Hoo-boy, the FAA continues to not understand its mission. Since the 1980's, the FAA has wanted to unload all of its meteorological responsibilities (remember they wanted to stop funding the meteorologists at the Air Route Traffic Control Centers about a year ago?). About every 10-15 years they threaten to cut off their rain gauges.

This time, they have decided not to continue a contract for surface obs in NC and MD. The details are here: Another federal contract cancelation impacts weather data, with surface observations reduced in North Carolina and Maryland

For the record, provided they were given the resources, it would be find with me to give NOAA (provided we could get NOAA reform passed along with a NDRB) all civilian weather responsibility.

 

[Boris Konon]

Turns out this was not a FAA or Federal issue:

"Even though the notice the NWS sent to users stated that the observations were being lost due to the cancellation of an FAA contract, colleagues with contacts within the FAA have reported this morning that the issue here is that the private entity that was responsible for transmitting the data for the 58 observation sites in question has actually went out of business. These sources report that the FAA is working to identify new entities that can provide this service. In fact, the FAA has already identified a new data provider for the North Carolina sites and is hoping to find a new provider for the Maryland sites soon, so the missing data should hopefully only be a temporary situation."

All but a few NC AWOS METARs are back. There MD AWOS METARs are not and a new distributor is being sought.