Combat weather team forecasts mission success

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jennifer Lindsey
  • 455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) --  Cloud reading may seem an ethereal art, but predicting the effects of alto cumulus clouds blowing over the southwest mountain range here is a pure science to aviators and ground troops traveling there.

Leaders here rely on the technical know-how of the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing’s Combat weather team to use what cannot be changed to an operations planning advantage.

Combat weather specialists use a combination of technical equipment and old-fashioned visual cues to provide hourly forecasts to officials on base. In addition, the team distributes its data to military forecasting centers at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., and Shaw AFB, S.C.

Details on wind speed and direction, visibility, precipitation, temperature, and lightning detection forecasts are all more than “gee whiz” information, said Senior Airman Laci Wood, who is deployed from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Pilots of all sorts -- helicopters, commuter aircraft, fighter jets and airlifters -- rely on updates for their flight planning and to help ensure a safe landing.

“Altitude, temperature and the dew point affect aircraft altimeter settings (which pilots use) to assess how high from the ground they are in preparation for runway approach and touching down,” said Lt. Col. John Cherrey, 81st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron commander and A-10 Thunderbolt II pilot.

Planners rely on accurate forecasts from the combat weather team to help ensure mission success, said Staff Sgt. Jim Moullet, who is deployed from Ft. Polk, La.

During the Afghan national elections, planners positioned quick-reaction forces and air mobility assets to respond to insurgency around the polling areas, said Army Maj. John Bircher, a Combined Joint Task Force 76 operations planner deployed from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. Planners coordinated with forecasters to determine how weather could affect aircraft and troop movement.

“We saw some of the worst weather here that day -- cold temperatures, rain and snow,” the major said, “but thanks to the forecasts, we adjusted our plans.”

More recently, planners here are monitoring weather forecasts to predict humanitarian crises and to prepare responses.

“We’re gathering winter coats, heaters and food to provide (them to) Afghans living in the higher elevations,” Maj. Bircher said.

Which is all pretty cool, Airman Wood said.

“Predicting what the weather is going to do next can be difficult and demanding work, but it’s rewarding knowing that the work we do here is important,” she said.