New aviation weather tool for GA

[Joe Jurecka]

Good morning all,

As the latest cold front moves through and will likely be a chilly day, here is something to keep you warm as you think about flying.

A new web page has been launched which, while directed toward helicopter users, can be quite useful for the types of GA activity we see here in West Texas.  This certainly includes ballooning, medivac, and the like.

It's a joint effort with the NWS/FAA/NSF and I encourage you to have a look and play around with it.  Of note is added emphasis on low level observations in a graphical manner.

To zoom in, double click (this isn't intuitively obvious to some users) and and right click to zoom out.

You can obtain prior observations plus 3 hour forecasts of some parameters including 500' and 1000' winds, temp, etc.  Whether ballooning or making instrument approaches, this insight can obviously be quite helpful.

http://weather.aero/tools/desktopapps/hemstool/help/tutorial

If you have any questions, please write me at joe.j...@noaa.gov and I'll do my best to help you out.

Joe Jurecka

Sr. Meteorologist
Aviation Program Manager

National Weather Service

Lubbock, TX