You’re 30,000 feet up in the air listening to your music or watching a movie, when the flight attendant comes around to do final checks before arrival at your destination airport. As you begin your descent, your pilot informs you of the weather conditions you can expect at your destination, but they’re not the ones actually forecasting the weather.
Meteorologists at the National Weather Service are responsible for providing the forecasts to the pilots which is a crucial part your flight arriving safely to and from your destinations. However, they don’t give a normal forecast like what you would see on TV, but instead, they issue something called a terminal aerodrome forecast, also known as a TAF. This is extremely important for pilots so they know what kind of conditions they can expect throughout your flight.
Joe Jurecka, Senior Meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Lubbock explains. “Aviation forecasts really focus on some of the regulatory requirements of what you need in order to fly to a destination. Specifically things like visibility, cloud ceilings, winds. These sorts of things dictate whether or not a pilot has to fly with reference to visual clues or on instruments. And of course the winds play a key part in which runway to use or even if they aircraft is able to land in those conditions.”
Not all airports have the same aviation requirements. Lubbock’s requirements can be different from Dallas or Houston, but each TAF still has the same importance at each airport.
“At the Lubbock airport, aircraft can make approaches down to a height of 200 feet and visibility to one half mile. If they don’t have the runway environment in sight then they have to execute a go around.”
Although the meteorologists at the National Weather Service are the ones issuing the forecasts, it’s really the pilots decision on the status of the flight.
“We issue of course our forecast, but really, it’s the pilot in command of the aircraft that has the final go, no-go, decision on any operation of the aircraft. The decision to take off, the decision to continue the flight, the decision to make an approach, and the decision to continue a landing.”