Narrative:

It was a complex weather day with light staffing. I was working at the sector X with no d-side when tpa went into holding due to weather over the field and a cell west of the holding fix. The supervisor knew that the aircraft would be holding close to the weather for at least 30 minutes and told other sectors to keep them coming. The first holding aircraft was able to enter hold and stay clear of the weather. The supervisor decided to combine sector Y to sector X due to short staffing and allow for people to go on break. After the combining of the sectors approach started releasing aircraft to the west and aircraft from sector Z started deviating into sector Y which increased work load. I was given the d-side that was over at sector Y after the sectors were combined and was also having to let the d-side know what was going on at sector X. Two aircraft diverted to alternate airports while multiple aircraft were asking for left turns instead of right and different leg lengths to stay clear of the weather. At the same time an overflight came from a route directly towards the holding stack while departures from miami center were released climbing towards the holding stack. The aircraft in hold ranged from 130 up to 230 with a gap at 180 and 210. The d-side was asking what altitude I wanted the overflight at when two departures from miami had been cleared climbing to FL200 headed towards the holding stack northbound. I thought the d-side was asking about the departures and I replied FL210 which was one of the only altitudes available. Sector V stopped their overflight at FL210 and when I noticed the srq departure still climbing I turned the aircraft to the right trying to avoid the holding stack while also trying to avoid turning the aircraft directly into the weather and keep the aircraft climbing to get above all the traffic. At this time the supervisor noticed how complex it was and asked for a tracker to plug in. There was no airspace active out to the west and there were no aircraft rerouted to avoid the cluster north of the pie VOR. Once the supervisor tried to split sector Y back off the RA was in the process and I advised the holding aircraft that I had turned to the right that the other aircraft was turning away behind and climbing and was no factor. At the time of the RA; I had been on position for about an hour and a half with no d-side for over an hour with complex weather and traffic. The supervisor noticed there was only one person on break and need to combine something to keep employees from going over 2 hours on position and even after I told the supervisor it was not the best time to combine the sectors; it was combined up anyways.if srq departures were routed to the west during holding there would have not been such a small gap for all the aircraft to fly through and no loss of separation would have happened. Tmu did nothing to start slowing the aircraft back and the supervisor told them to keep the aircraft coming. It was a situation with all the aircraft in one place place and not enough space and available altitudes when all the military airspace to the west was cold and should have been utilized. I felt that no coordination was done to prevent this incident and it was set up for failure.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZJX Controller reported a complex traffic situation with combined Sectors; weather in the area causing holding; and short staffing; which resulted in an operational error. Reporter alleges supervision and Traffic Management did not assist in the proper fashion.

Narrative: It was a complex weather day with light staffing. I was working at the Sector X with no D-side when TPA went into holding due to weather over the field and a cell west of the holding fix. The supervisor knew that the aircraft would be holding close to the weather for at least 30 minutes and told other sectors to keep them coming. The first holding aircraft was able to enter hold and stay clear of the weather. The supervisor decided to combine Sector Y to Sector X due to short staffing and allow for people to go on break. After the combining of the sectors approach started releasing aircraft to the west and aircraft from Sector Z started deviating into Sector Y which increased work load. I was given the D-side that was over at Sector Y after the sectors were combined and was also having to let the D-side know what was going on at Sector X. Two aircraft diverted to alternate airports while multiple aircraft were asking for left turns instead of right and different leg lengths to stay clear of the weather. At the same time an overflight came from a route directly towards the holding stack while departures from Miami center were released climbing towards the holding stack. The aircraft in hold ranged from 130 up to 230 with a gap at 180 and 210. The D-side was asking what altitude I wanted the overflight at when two departures from Miami had been cleared climbing to FL200 headed towards the holding stack northbound. I thought the D-side was asking about the departures and I replied FL210 which was one of the only altitudes available. Sector V stopped their overflight at FL210 and when I noticed the SRQ departure still climbing I turned the aircraft to the right trying to avoid the holding stack while also trying to avoid turning the aircraft directly into the weather and keep the aircraft climbing to get above all the traffic. At this time the supervisor noticed how complex it was and asked for a tracker to plug in. There was no airspace active out to the west and there were no aircraft rerouted to avoid the cluster north of the PIE VOR. Once the supervisor tried to split Sector Y back off the RA was in the process and I advised the holding aircraft that I had turned to the right that the other aircraft was turning away behind and climbing and was no factor. At the time of the RA; I had been on position for about an hour and a half with no D-side for over an hour with complex weather and traffic. The supervisor noticed there was only one person on break and need to combine something to keep employees from going over 2 hours on position and even after I told the supervisor it was not the best time to combine the sectors; it was combined up anyways.If SRQ departures were routed to the west during holding there would have not been such a small gap for all the aircraft to fly through and no loss of separation would have happened. TMU did nothing to start slowing the aircraft back and the supervisor told them to keep the aircraft coming. It was a situation with all the aircraft in one place place and not enough space and available altitudes when all the military airspace to the west was cold and should have been utilized. I felt that no coordination was done to prevent this incident and it was set up for failure.

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.