FAA and National Weather Service Face Challenges

A report from the Government Accountability Office cites concerns that the National Weather Service and the FAA need a fresh interagency agreement. And consolidating weather service units is one of the possible outcomes. The existing pact expires at the end of this month. A proposed restructuring addresses the manner in which aviation weather is provided to FAA en route air traffic centers. The latest proposal, according to the GAO, would consolidate weather services from some 21 locations down to two. One hitch to implementing the new proposal is that there are currently insufficient measuring baselines to establish whether or not any new weather-services distribution program were successful.