Wasn’t there previously an on-site, dedicated met unit based at Sydney Airport, that knew the local weather patterns like the back of their hands, and could forecast this type of occurrence to the minute? What happened to them?
AsA management decided they knew better, why should they allocate a couple of offices to BoM when no other Australian airport had a "SAMU", didn't fit the OneSky operating model and anyways both the major airlines have their own meteorologists.
I assume there is still a forecaster sitting at the field as per bullet point two. Is that not the case?
Bullet point 2
Kept under continuous weather watch by the responsible aviation meteorologist focusing on the next 5-hours of the:
– validity and timings of probabilities (PROBs) (updated if necessary); and
– validity and timings of TEMPO/INTERs (updated if necessary).
No, Sydney Airport has an observer and a bunch of cameras. The forecaster is located elsewhere eg Elizabeth Street in the city or Cairns or ?
The SAMU had access to the old Tower and would sometimes do their own observations. Sydney Tower should update the BoM as necessary including their own observations and pilot reports.