by John B. Dalton
MnDOT Statewide Navigation Systems Engineer
Published In Midwest Flyer Magazine February/March 2022 Online Issue
It’s 5 AM, and you’re beginning to hear the birds calling in the beautiful day as you sit outdoors sipping your morning cup of joe. You’re looking ahead to the 7:15 AM tee time with your other flying friends at the City of Buffalo – Wild Marsh Golf Club.
The evening before, after cleaning your clubs and making sure you have enough balls and tees for the day’s outing, you watch the weather news and it’s going to be a perfect 75-degree day, and no wind predicted…Sweet…
After a few holes, the wind starts to pick up, and you worry that your near-perfect game will be compromised. The only way to check wind on the course is to grab a clump of grass, drop it and watch the direction and force of the winds.
Or is it?
The Minnesota Department of Transportation’s Office of Aeronautics has entered into an agreement with AnyAWOS Inc., to provide METAR information for the local airport and for all of the nearly 90 AWOS systems that the state owns and operates. These systems in turn feed nationally into the National Weather Service. You put in the city name or zip code and the weather for the area is presented as KCFE. And you can access this information via a Handheld Weather Meter or on your smart phone by connecting to AnyAWOS – https://www.anyawos.com/KCFE.
Chris Fredrick, the airport manager from the City of Buffalo, Minnesota. Airport, happens to be part of your golf foursome. Chris mentions the Buffalo Airport’s recently commissioned, state-of-the-art AWOS System with the latest sensing features. He points out a unique feature on the new AWOS Tower that is unlike the old AWOS systems throughout Minnesota: a weathervane minus a prop that provides wind speed and direction.
These new AWOS systems with the latest generation of sensors use sound waves to measure wind speed and direction. The measurement is based on the time it takes for an ultrasonic pulse to travel from one transducer to another, which varies depending on the wind speed, among other factors. The transit time is measured in both directions for several (usually two or three) pairs of the transducer heads. Based on those results, the sensor computes wind speed and direction. Compared to mechanical sensors, the ultrasonic sensors offer several advantages, such as no moving parts, advanced self-diagnostic capabilities and reduced maintenance requirements.
This technology has come a long way since the days when airports had a person daily physically go out to the Weather Data Collection Devices and write down the data to be posted and broadcast at the airport. In the mid-1980s, Remote Electronic AWOS Sensing Reporting was deployed. By 1990, the first AWOS Systems were commissioned in Minnesota, many of which are still in operation. The original systems are no longer supported by the manufacturer, requiring the MnDOT Navigation System Team to find parts from other states that no longer have a need for the older equipment.
To the City of Buffalo, Minnesota, and all of our other partners, MnDOT Aeronautics would like to express our gratitude for ensuring those arriving or departing the Buffalo Airport have every tool necessary to provide for a safe and informative flight.
Even though you can’t bring a portable AWOS Tower out on the golf course – know as a pilot, flying in and out of the Buffalo Airport, the weather is reported much more accurately than with a lump of grass.
