Narrative:

I arrived to work my midnight shift. The radar sectors were at that moment in the process of being combined down to the midnight scope and I took over at that position. The 2 evening shift controllers were sent home; and the 10 hour midshift person was sent on a break. I did not have any information about how much the IFR rainy weather all day had affected traffic flows leading into my shift. At that point; there was only me in the radar room working all the radar positions and one supervisor at the desk. The supervisor did not seem to notice how uncharacteristically busy the evening traffic was getting. Over the next 45 minutes or so I worked many; many arrivals with low ceilings and about 2 miles compression inside the marker due to high winds on final.in the morning I asked the traffic management specialist to look up arrival numbers; he told me there were 28 arrivals in that 45 minute period. These numbers and conditions would have necessitated opening up both arrivals and final any other time of the day. There were also several late aircraft for satellites; ewr; and other overflights. I provided at least 3 IFR satellite approaches that I can remember. The phl tower controller pulled approximately 4 arrivals off approach and gave them back to me to re-sequence during this push. This is a direct result of not being able to spend as much time micro-managing the phl final sequence and speeds due to being so busy with other aircraft and responsibilities elsewhere in the combined airspace. Having to work these aircraft back into the flow on final; of course; only made me busier.I did stop departures; but I don't think that helped much since there weren't many left to go. I had an aircraft request a change of destination to teb due to high winds reported at ZZZ and asked the supervisor to make an amendment showing the new destination. At that point the supervisor did seem to notice that I was busy; but took no definitive measures to help me; and was clearly more interested in knowing the reason for the destination change and letting me know I could 'always ask for help any time…'on a typical night; at least 90% of the time; combining to the mid scope [that late] is absolutely reasonable. On those rare occasions where weather has impacted the operation all day long; it is not a new phenomenon for flights to be delayed well into the mid shift. We have sophisticated equipment in tmu that lets us know exactly how bad for exactly how long. The late staying evening shift supervisor should maintain awareness of this situation - even if it will continue to occur well after he/she has left for the night. When to combine sectors is a management call. Yes; we want to get everyone home on time. And we don't want to spend too much overtime budget. But on those rare occasions; management should make this call. It should not be left to the mid person to suck up levels of busy traffic and complexity that on any other shift would be cause for opening up 4 or more sectors. At the very least; leave a final open so that the M scope controller can actually provide a service to all the other traffic on frequency as well as provide a reasonable sequence to hand off to phl final. To do otherwise sets up an unsafe situation.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PHL TRACON Controller reported working the midnight shift with all sectors combined; and became to busy to allow departures to depart and had several go-arounds for final spacing.

Narrative: I arrived to work my midnight shift. The radar sectors were at that moment in the process of being combined down to the midnight scope and I took over at that position. The 2 evening shift controllers were sent home; and the 10 hour midshift person was sent on a break. I did not have any information about how much the IFR rainy weather all day had affected traffic flows leading into my shift. At that point; there was only me in the radar room working all the radar positions and one supervisor at the desk. The supervisor did not seem to notice how uncharacteristically busy the evening traffic was getting. Over the next 45 minutes or so I worked many; many arrivals with low ceilings and about 2 miles compression inside the marker due to high winds on final.In the morning I asked the Traffic Management Specialist to look up arrival numbers; he told me there were 28 arrivals in that 45 minute period. These numbers and conditions would have necessitated opening up both arrivals and final any other time of the day. There were also several late aircraft for satellites; EWR; and other overflights. I provided at least 3 IFR satellite approaches that I can remember. The PHL tower controller pulled approximately 4 arrivals off approach and gave them back to me to re-sequence during this push. This is a direct result of not being able to spend as much time micro-managing the PHL final sequence and speeds due to being so busy with other aircraft and responsibilities elsewhere in the combined airspace. Having to work these aircraft back into the flow on final; of course; only made me busier.I did stop departures; but I don't think that helped much since there weren't many left to go. I had an aircraft request a change of destination to TEB due to high winds reported at ZZZ and asked the supervisor to make an amendment showing the new destination. At that point the supervisor did seem to notice that I was busy; but took no definitive measures to help me; and was clearly more interested in knowing the reason for the destination change and letting me know I could 'always ask for help any time…'On a typical night; at least 90% of the time; combining to the mid scope [that late] is absolutely reasonable. On those rare occasions where weather has impacted the operation all day long; it is not a new phenomenon for flights to be delayed well into the mid shift. We have sophisticated equipment in TMU that lets us know exactly how bad for exactly how long. The late staying evening shift supervisor should maintain awareness of this situation - even if it will continue to occur well after he/she has left for the night. When to combine sectors is a management call. Yes; we want to get everyone home on time. And we don't want to spend too much overtime budget. But on those rare occasions; management should make this call. It should not be left to the mid person to suck up levels of busy traffic and complexity that on any other shift would be cause for opening up 4 or more sectors. At the very least; leave a final open so that the M scope controller can actually provide a service to all the other traffic on frequency as well as provide a reasonable sequence to hand off to PHL final. To do otherwise sets up an unsafe situation.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.