Airfield Weather Has A Mind Of It's Own.

[Midland 331]

A foggy early morning at Gatwick, 08R in use. I am sitting in the Travelodge on the south side, doing something "illegal" with a radio. Allegedly

RVRs are all around 600-ish.

They suddenly drop to 150/450/450.

A simple (hah!) solution - switch the pattern around to 26L.

Done.

Sadly, the fog has the same idea, and the touchdown RVR of 26L drops, and remains stubbornly 150.

Switch again to 08R. The fog follows to the touchdown point again.

Does it have a mind of its own?

All this points to the question "Why airfields have their own microclimate."?

Sure, flat land is useful for runway construction, but will always be damper than surrounding land, hence more fog-prone.

It was, however, utter disheartening to drive in for shifts at Teesside in my early days in the industry, and find that they sky was utterly clear until half a mile from the airfield boundary. And that the next eight hours would be utterly frantic.

Has anyone else observed "malevolently intellegent weather"?

r

[boredcounter]

As I remember, JER and GCI could see your runway end and move the fog inter-island depending on my current, soon to change and change back plan. Oh happy days!

[Ian Brooks]

I remember being told that there is a higher chance of a thunder storm at an airfield due to the large expanse of concrete which warms up quicker than earth

Ian

[Fernando_Covas]

Stand 4 at BRS has its own climate.

[MungoP]

One classic I do remember is Edinburgh in my days flying Bandits for Business Air..... the runway is built alongside a Burn ... not sure of the spelling but anyway.. a small stream...the stream radiates fog on cold clear mornings which encompasses the IRVR system... often used to arrive back there at around 06:00 after a night-freight schedule to find IRVRs quoted as 150 250 200 whatever.... looking down you could see clearly the appch lights/Rwy lights all the airport lights... Glasgow and most of Scotland !.... when the fog was more prevelant a trick was to know at what time the first jet departure was... around 07:00 if I remember... we would commence the approach a few minutes before so as to be at the OM as the jet blasted a clear spot around the IRVRs which would allow us to continue the approach legally :D ..