The National Weather Service in Grand Junction will issue weather forecasts every six hours for three airports, including Durango-La Plata County Airport, starting Wednesday evening.
The service has nothing to do with the miscommunications last week that grounded flights in Durango for three hours Nov. 7, said Jim Pringle, the warning coordinator meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.
Two flights were delayed and two canceled because Durango-La Plata airport’s automated weather-monitoring system had to be shut down for weather service technicians to do routine maintenance.
The airport has no one trained to make weather observations when the automated system is out. The observations are required by the Federal Aviation Administration for flights to take off or land.
“We will provide forecasts, not observations,” Pringle said.
Pringle said he has worked to provide the weather forecasts since he arrived at the weather service in 1995. The forecasts will be in effect for a radius of 10 miles from the main airport runway.
“The National Weather Service headquarters and the FAA finally signed off,” Pringle said.
The forecasts, called TAFs, for Terminal Aerodrome Forecast, will be updated as necessary during the six-hour intervals, Pringle said.
The other airports to receive forecasts are Telluride Regional Airport and Canyonlands Field Airport in Grand County, Utah.
daler@durangoherald.com
