Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va. –
With hurricane season affecting the Eastern United States, nothing quite captures your attention like the prospect of having your house blow away from 200 mile-per-hour winds.
Many people spend days glued to their television sets for the latest information from the local news stations. However, there are a few individuals in the 1st Operations Support Squadron who have their finger directly on the pulse of every major weather system which could affect the base.
2nd Lt. Rashid Lamb, 1 OSS Weather Flight commander, said the weather shop supports the 1st Fighter Wing flying program with accurate and timely weather updates at Langley, Fort Eustis and over the numerous military operating areas, in-flight refueling tracks, and working areas just off the Mid-Atlantic coast.
"We do this by continuously monitoring sea states and weather data across the region though RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging), satellite, airfield equipment and real-time weather observations," said Lamb. "Secondly, we provide asset and personnel protection by issuing any required forecasts, watches, warnings and/or advisories. Some of our most common WWAs are severe thunderstorms, lightning, tidal surges or flooding, and dangerous winds."
Lamb said as far as hurricane and nor'easter season is concerned, they are not allowed to deviate from the forecast of the National Hurricane Center. However, they do forecast the local conditions caused by a major storm, such as Hurricane Irene. They typically ramp up coverage when a system is within 450 nautical miles and expected to impact Joint Base Langley-Eustis.
"We issue hurricane track updates, which include the center's closest point of approach, surge or flood potential, max expected wind speed time and duration. As expected, a lot of manpower is directed at these dangerous systems," said Lamb. "We are continuously monitoring the National Hurricane Center's forecast, which is updated every five hours. We have numerous, recurrent satellite loops, which are used to determine storm location, speed, trajectory and etcetera."
Staff Sgt. Andrew Bethea, 1 OSS weather forecaster, said the National Weather Center's predictions are just the starting point for local forecasts.
"If the National Hurricane Center says we are going to get hurricane-force winds at 80 knots, we can't deviate from that. What we do is predict how it's going to affect us here," said Bethea.
"We are monitoring our tide gauge every day to see what kind of tidal surges we are seeing. We have a live feed from the bay into our office to see if we can expect any kind of flooding," said Lamb. "If we get any kind of warning, we are here 24/7 to issue significant reports to our senior leaders. We provide reports to multiple agencies around the base, like (Civil Engineering), especially if we expect there to be any flooding."
Bethea said compared to TV weather, forecasting for the Air Force is a much more involved experience, including two-way communication.
"Where the guys on TV are talking to the general public, we're talking to fighter pilots and maybe even the wing commander. We have to tailor our forecast for a very specific audience. If they have questions, we'll try to answer them, but if we don't know the answer, we'll try to find out and get back to them," said Bethea. "Our job on a daily basis is to make sure the planes are safe; to take care of our assets and take care of Langley."
Lamb echoed those same sentiments and said TV weathermen are usually more into the general aspects of the weather, which is why you typically here phrases like, "partly cloudy" or "partly sunny" in their forecasts.
"Not to take away anything from those guys at all, but their customer doesn't require as specific details as our people do," said Lamb. "One can imagine that a pilot would want to know how soon he's going to be able to see the ground if he's attempting to land at 300 knots. It makes a huge difference whether there is five miles of visibility as opposed to 300 feet."
Because so much is riding on the forecasts from the weather shop, it is paramount they receive the best training possible. For entry into this specialty, recruiters look for individuals who have taken courses in physics, chemistry, earth sciences, geography, computer sciences and mathematics.
Bethea said the forecaster's technical school lasts for eight months at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. From there, forecasters spend several years at one of several weather "hubs."
"I went to the one at Scott (Air Force Base). That is where we learned the on-the-job aspects of operational forecasting," said Bethea.
The other hubs in the continental U.S. are located at Barksdale A.F.B., La., Shaw A.F.B., S.C., and Davis-Monthan A.F.B., Ariz. There are also hubs at Hickam A.F.B., Hawaii, Elmendorf A.F.B., Ala., Sembach Air Base, Germany, and Yakota AB, Japan. Following this OJT, they return to Keesler to attend the three-month Weather Observer course, and are usually then reassigned to an Air Force Weather Squadron or detachment.
From there, forecasters are assigned to their first duty station, and deploy just like every other career field in the military.
"When deployed, we do the same thing," said Bethea. "We make our products for the fighters and do our best to protect our resources with our forecasts."