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Weather Cams
12/12/2002
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook. Flying is always weather dependent. Pilots in
Alaska travel through high mountain passes to remote village airstrips. As Amy Mayer reports,
the Federal Aviation Administration has set up an extra source of weather information for bush
pilots.
It's yet another example of how the Internet is permeating society: web cams on airstrips.
Earl Valley is Assistant Air Traffic Manager for the F.A.A. in Fairbanks.
EV: The pilots can access the images over the Internet from their homes or they can come here
and we have an Intranet connection and our specialists can brief them and point out different
things about the weather cam and the picture that they're seeing.
What they're seeing is a real time picture of their destination. And right next to it on the
screen is a clear day image of the same spot. These pictures give pilots a visual to match
with the traditional written weather information from human and automated sources. Pilot John
Burns checks the weather cams before every flight.
JB: Sometimes the automated systems that report the weather on text on paper are off, and the
cameras have sort of saved our bacon, so to speak.
Burns is not alone. Valley says pilots tell him the weather cams help them decide whether, and
where, to fly.
EV: Last week, I had a pilot that looked at Anuktuvik, followed by McKinley and then Potato
Point, and then decided Valdez is where he wanted to go because he was just going for a
leisure trip. He was just looking for the best weather, and the weather cams helped him make
that decision.
Alaska is the only state with F.A.A. weather cams, but Burns hopes they will become a trend.
JB: I think it'd be great to have them everywhere.
Amy Mayer reports from Fairbanks. You can see the weather cams for yourself. Go to our
website, www.weathernotebook.org, for a link. The Weather Notebook is supported by Subaru of
America and the National Science Foundation.
Today's Links
Weather Cams
http://akweathercams.faa.gov/wxcams/map.php
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