AIRPORT WILL LOSE MANNED WEATHER UNIT; WEATHER SERVICE TO RELY ON AUTOMATED OBSERVATIONS

Weather observers have been a fixture at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport for decades.

But that will end March 5 when the National Weather Service goes to an automated system that will provide continual weather observations from the airport.

Jeff Dahms, who supervises the airport weather station, said the automated system will be cheaper to operate.

The weather observations currently are handled by a St. Louis area firm, Midwest Weather Inc., under a contract with the Federal Aviation Administration. Dahms and five other weather observers staff the office, providing hourly weather checks 24 hours a day at a cost of about $140,000 a year.

He said Monday there isn't enough traffic at the airport to warrant the FAA keeping the office open.

The automated system doesn't require the office space that a manned office does, he said.

The FAA has been moving to automated weather observations at airports across the country, he said. Weather observers still are stationed at the nation's larger airports. But even at those airports they will be supplemented by the Automated Service Observing System, Dahms said.

Mayor Al Spradling III said the city has no control over the closing of the weather station.

The Cape Girardeau City Council will vote Wednesday to enter into an agreement with the National Weather Service. The agreement will provide the city-operated control tower with computer access to the automated weather readings.

The federal government and then private contractors have provided weather observations at the airport for 37 years.

The Federal Aviation Administration opened a flight service station at the airport on June 2, 1960. The FAA closed the station in fall 1987. Since then, weather observations have been handled by private firms under contracts with the FAA.

Dahms said the automated system will be more convenient to pilots because it will provide real-time weather observations, Dahms said.

"When en route to Cape Girardeau they can dial up a specific radio frequency and get the automated weather voice," he said.

Weather readings from the Cape Girardeau airport also will be on the Internet, Dahms said.

While the automated system works well, Dahms said weather observers can better observe freezing rain, shallow fog and various storm conditions.

But he said the government plans to improve the automated system to provide better weather observations.

Veteran pilot John Seesing of Cape Girardeau said he prefers the personal touch of a manned weather office. But he said, "Everything is getting more and more automated. It is good when it works right."