Weather Management Solutions for Airport Operations

Lightning Alert Siren & Strobe System

Real-time weather map & mobile app

A real-time weather map and mobile app combination enables you to plan for incoming weather events and keep at-risk stakeholders safe. Interactive weather maps visualize data in real-time with animated layers and storm “time of arrival” estimates to help you prepare for anything that comes your way. You can display the weather map on a centrally located display – like in your Airport Operations Center – or keep it on your desktop for easy access. The addition of a companion mobile application ensures that you will always have access to the map information and alerts.

Used in combination, these tools create a central source of truth for airports, airlines, and other parties to have access to the same weather information at the same time. This solution can also be very cost-effective for smaller operations and replace multiple sources of weather information with a more reliable solution.

For large-scale deployments, such as international airlines, you may want to explore an enterprise mobile application that can be controlled from a centralized center of operations. This type of mobile app comes with special administrative features that make it easier to manage for large groups.

Flood & Road Weather Alerts

Standing water on runways and roadways can bring airport operations to a halt. Similarly, ice on airport roads, runways, and equipment can create significant safety risks.

Depending on your location, high water alerts, icy road alerts, or both might be crucial to keeping ground crews and the public safe. With the right monitoring system, airports can track live and developing conditions on runways and roadways to adjust and deploy assets accordingly.

Advanced notice of a flash flood or freeze can easily save a life, especially at the airport where there are often low-lying tunnels and high-traffic roads. By providing a timely, proactive warning to employees and the public alike, airport management can minimize the number of individuals and the amount of equipment at risk. As conditions begin to improve, that same monitoring technology can help leadership determine when it’s safe to resume ground crew work, reopen runways, and suspend any temporary diversion of road traffic.

Imagine being able to pick up the phone and talk to a professional meteorologist about the day’s weather – no shouting at the meteorologist on the TV or waiting on support from an over-burdened state meteorologist. That’s the kind of powerful, white-glove service you can get when you have on-demand forecasting support.

With on-demand support, you can get exactly the weather data you need to maintain maximum operational continuity as well as forging a partnership with a true expert. That means you have a powerful resource you can turn to when you need help interpreting a forecast, understanding incoming weather, or determining when it’s time to scale back operations or implement aspects of your severe weather plan.

Information displays

Remember when we were discussing policy/plan creation and said communication is paramount? Given the variety of people and roles at the airport, a single communication channel will never be sufficient to reach all your stakeholders in a timely manner. In addition to standard mobile alerts, centrally located Weather Displays are a fantastic tool for providing updates.

HD Weather Displays are video screens that share everything from current conditions to location-specific forecasts and critical weather alerts. The same screens can also be used to display evacuation protocols or share all-clear messages once an event is over.

These displays work best in high-traffic areas throughout your facility to communicate the latest weather information, warnings, and alerts to airport employees and the general public. They can also be placed in isolated work areas, like maintenance hangers or operations centers, to ensure all teams are fully plugged in on the latest weather information.

Selecting the right weather services vendor

    CHECK WITH THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE

To identify weather services vendors for consideration, start by consulting industry associations (AAAE, Airport Council International, etc.), trade publications, and your peers. Unlike a resource like project management software, there are not any review sites for weather services providers.

The U.S. National Weather Service maintains a list of Enterprise Resources at www.weather.gov/enterprise but does not endorse or recommend any specific providers or solutions. You’ll have to vet them yourself and decide which vendor and solution will be the best fit!

    CHECK CUSTOMER REVIEWS

Reading or listening to customer testimonials is a great way to hear what others really think about the vendors and their weather tracking, alerting, and/or forecasting solutions.

    MAKE SURE THEY SUPPORT YOUR A-P-I

You’ll also want to clearly understand your needs for a weather solution using the Analyze-Plan-Implement framework outlined earlier in this guide to make sure any vendors you are considering offer all of the services you need.

    DO RESEARCH & REQUEST PROPOSALS

Once you’ve identified a shortlist of vendors, invite each of them to respond to your requirements. You’ll want to review presentations, product demonstrations, and other support materials like white papers, eBooks, datasheets, and so on. This can be as formal (or informal) as fits your organization, but clearly communicating your objectives and requirements is imperative.

    EVALUATE TOP CONTENDERS

You’ll want to look for the appropriate balance of weather data source quality, alerting methods, and customer support. We’ve drafted some suggested questions and evaluation criteria for you to use. The requirements on the next page do not represent an exhaustive list of key capabilities but are a helpful starting point.