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An air carrier pilot notes that the use of automated weather reporting at towered airports provides less than adequate weather information for operations when controllers are not certified weather observers and are procedurally restricted in what weather information they can give.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 842527 |
| Time | |
| Date | 200907 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | MOB.Airport |
| State Reference | AL |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Regional Jet 200 ER/LR (CRJ200) |
| Flight Phase | Initial Approach |
| Route In Use | Visual Approach |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain Pilot Flying |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural Other / Unknown Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence |
Narrative:
We copied information: 17/05 10SM FEW010 SCT030 24/23 2987 visual 32/36. This was automated weather and the few at 1;000' turned out to be more like scattered at 1;700' with a large cloud on downwind. We entered the pattern on downwind and adjusted the pattern to compensate for the inaccurate report. We considered a missed approach but were able to steer around the clouds and remain on the approach.AWOS/ASOS/metars have always given inaccurate sky coverage because the automated station does not take an adequate sample of the sky. The FAA knows this and they certify it anyway. Furthermore; the tower controller who knows that sky coverage is inaccurate or perhaps gets a PIREP is not authorized to correct the ATIS. He has not been 'certified'.this is a good thing to bring up now since the political climate at the FAA makes it likely that they might fix it now.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: An air carrier pilot notes that the use of automated weather reporting at towered airports provides less than adequate weather information for operations when controllers are not certified weather observers and are procedurally restricted in what weather information they can give.
Narrative: We copied information: 17/05 10SM FEW010 SCT030 24/23 2987 VISUAL 32/36. This was automated weather and the few at 1;000' turned out to be more like scattered at 1;700' with a large cloud on downwind. We entered the pattern on downwind and adjusted the pattern to compensate for the inaccurate report. We considered a missed approach but were able to steer around the clouds and remain on the approach.AWOS/ASOS/METARs have always given inaccurate sky coverage because the automated station does not take an adequate sample of the sky. The FAA knows this and they certify it anyway. Furthermore; the Tower Controller who knows that sky coverage is inaccurate or perhaps gets a PIREP is not authorized to correct the ATIS. He has not been 'certified'.This is a good thing to bring up now since the political climate at the FAA makes it likely that they might fix it now.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.