ZID controller was asked by a supervisor why weather descriptions were not issued as required; the r...

Narrative:

Line of weather extending north to south from northern il to la. Air carrier departures had received routings to avoid as much as possible. Entire one hour session focused on best route and tops of weather. Constantly getting feedback from earlier departures to relay to others. Gave best service possible to help flights get through line of weather. Pilots and ATC worked very well together. Many deviations and different paths taken to get west of weather. After session; I was asked why I did not describe weather to aircraft. First of all; at beginning of session weather was west of my airspace; gradually moving east. Secondly; weather was focus from the time aircraft checked on my frequency. I did not see any use in describing weather to aircraft already deviating for it. Relaying previously mentioned information to pilots was a much better use of time. Pilots wanted to know tops and best way to get west of weather. They had just departed; they were well aware of the situation. After session. I was told that an aircraft deviating around weather does not relieve me of requirement to describe that weather to the deviating aircraft. Recommendation; revise weather description requirements.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZID Controller was asked by a supervisor why weather descriptions were not issued as required; the reporter indicating weather diversion service seemed more important that weather descriptions.

Narrative: Line of weather extending North to South from Northern IL to LA. Air Carrier departures had received routings to avoid as much as possible. Entire one hour session focused on best route and tops of weather. Constantly getting feedback from earlier departures to relay to others. Gave best service possible to help flights get through line of weather. Pilots and ATC worked very well together. Many deviations and different paths taken to get west of weather. After session; I was asked why I did not describe weather to aircraft. First of all; at beginning of session weather was west of my airspace; gradually moving east. Secondly; weather was focus from the time aircraft checked on my frequency. I did not see any use in describing weather to aircraft already deviating for it. Relaying previously mentioned information to pilots was a much better use of time. Pilots wanted to know tops and best way to get West of weather. They had just departed; they were well aware of the situation. After session. I was told that an aircraft deviating around weather does not relieve me of requirement to describe that weather to the deviating aircraft. Recommendation; revise weather description requirements.

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.

Attributes
ACN	878722
Time
Date	201003
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZID.ARTCC
State Reference	IN
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

ZID controller was asked by a supervisor why weather descriptions were not issued as required; the reporter indicating weather diversion service seemed more important that weather descriptions.