Narrative:

I was on local control 4 and we were landing south on runway 16R/left and runway 17R. The wind shifted and was consistent at 320 and 25 knots or so; I could also see a wind shear or micro burst because of the dust blowing that our equipment was not picking up on short final. I don't know the exact time; but I would say close to 30 minutes landing in this configuration with that wind. The whole time aircraft were going around; very few landed. There are many problems with this scenario; as well as how it was handled while it was going on. The first problem is that it happens way too often. One hour before this took place; the flm (front line manager) and tmc (traffic management control) were looking at the weather radar and knew that wind shifts and wind shears were coming. They did not know how it would affect the airport winds; which I understand; as they were coming from all areas. They took a guess and set up for a south configuration. They were wrong; resulting in putting 30 or so aircraft in a very dangerous situation that were trying to land with a 30 knot tail wind with; a wind shear and flying through a micro burst. This happens too often and the TRACON will not put the aircraft in a holding pattern. They claim they have too much going on and it will take 15 to 20 minutes to get into a north configuration. When we become aware of these winds on radar; the simple answer to this whole thing is to set the airport up in a north and south configuration. This gives TRACON four runways to land on; and gives tower the ability to issue multiple runway landings. When aircraft started going around; my only option was to give them back to the TRACON and set up for the same runway. I did and they went around again and then we were dealing with adding in a minimum fuel situation. If we were in a north and south configuration; TRACON could be set up for both; and the second that they know how the wind shifts affected the airport; start putting everyone on that final. Another problem with this situation is help for the local controller during these busy times. Denver has had many issues lately; as a result; we have been notified that the coordinator position will be open more often and during times of busy traffic. The problem is that it is not. When we have good staffing; the flm's like to open it during very slow times. This is not a help; this is a distraction. Conversations then take place; it gets very noisy and it is hard to hear the aircraft. This also adds to the number of positions open and adds the number of controllers needing to be switched out on break. Controllers start going near 2 hours on position with no relief and then the flm has no choice but to close the position. Then when traffic does pick up; there are no controllers available for these positions. This was the case in this instance; I was very busy and had no help when I needed it. I was shouting; 'somebody coordinate that' when pilots needed to divert out side of my airspace because they did not want to fly through the micro burst. Please take a look at how denver tower and TRACON run there operation during these times of weather. Too often we are setting the pilots up to fail; vectoring pilots to land and fly through level 5 and 6 thunderstorms or right into micro bursts and 30 knot quartering tail winds. Recommendation; we always see the weather coming; we have great equipment for that; and we just don't act until it is too late. For this situation; we saw it coming 30-40 minutes before it occurred; we should have set up for north and south configuration. That would have lessened the impact; as we could have immediately given the pilots another option other than a 30 tailwind with micro burst. Some may argue that we would then have only two departure runways; but when aircraft start going around TRACON stops all departures anyway.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: DEN Tower Controller described multiple go arounds during a thirty minute period; claiming the initial landing runway configuration decision by the TMU and FLM was flawed. The reporter further lamented on the existing runway arrival/departure procedure needing revision and more timely runway use decisions made to prevent future like instances.

Narrative: I was on Local Control 4 and we were landing south on Runway 16R/L and Runway 17R. The wind shifted and was consistent at 320 and 25 knots or so; I could also see a wind shear or micro burst because of the dust blowing that our equipment was not picking up on short final. I don't know the exact time; but I would say close to 30 minutes landing in this configuration with that wind. The whole time aircraft were going around; very few landed. There are many problems with this scenario; as well as how it was handled while it was going on. The first problem is that it happens way too often. One hour before this took place; the FLM (Front Line Manager) and TMC (Traffic Management Control) were looking at the weather RADAR and knew that wind shifts and wind shears were coming. They did not know how it would affect the airport winds; which I understand; as they were coming from all areas. They took a guess and set up for a south configuration. They were wrong; resulting in putting 30 or so aircraft in a very dangerous situation that were trying to land with a 30 knot tail wind with; a wind shear and flying through a micro burst. This happens too often and the TRACON will not put the aircraft in a holding pattern. They claim they have too much going on and it will take 15 to 20 minutes to get into a north configuration. When we become aware of these winds on RADAR; the simple answer to this whole thing is to set the airport up in a north and south configuration. This gives TRACON four runways to land on; and gives Tower the ability to issue multiple runway landings. When aircraft started going around; my only option was to give them back to the TRACON and set up for the same runway. I did and they went around again and then we were dealing with adding in a minimum fuel situation. If we were in a north and south configuration; TRACON could be set up for both; and the second that they know how the wind shifts affected the airport; start putting everyone on that final. Another problem with this situation is help for the Local Controller during these busy times. Denver has had many issues lately; as a result; we have been notified that the Coordinator Position will be open more often and during times of busy traffic. The problem is that it is not. When we have good staffing; the FLM's like to open it during very slow times. This is not a help; this is a distraction. Conversations then take place; it gets very noisy and it is hard to hear the aircraft. This also adds to the number of positions open and adds the number of Controllers needing to be switched out on break. Controllers start going near 2 hours on position with no relief and then the FLM has no choice but to close the position. Then when traffic does pick up; there are no Controllers available for these positions. This was the case in this instance; I was very busy and had no help when I needed it. I was shouting; 'somebody coordinate that' when pilots needed to divert out side of my airspace because they did not want to fly through the micro burst. Please take a look at how Denver Tower and TRACON run there operation during these times of weather. Too often we are setting the pilots up to fail; vectoring pilots to land and fly through level 5 and 6 thunderstorms or right into micro bursts and 30 knot quartering tail winds. Recommendation; we always see the weather coming; we have great equipment for that; and we just don't act until it is too late. For this situation; we saw it coming 30-40 minutes before it occurred; we should have set up for north and south configuration. That would have lessened the impact; as we could have immediately given the pilots another option other than a 30 tailwind with micro burst. Some may argue that we would then have only two departure runways; but when aircraft start going around TRACON stops all departures anyway.

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.