Rapidly Deteriorating Weather Conditions…

When I was a kid, I had a Patrolman 6 band VHF/UHF radio that picked up the aircraft frequencies. I could spend hours listening to the controllers at BHM handling the planes.

Now of course, you listen over the internet, which makes it possible to listen to control frequencies from places all over the world easier just as easily or easier than you could listen to BHM.

With bad weather conditions in Chicago today, I have been listening to the controllers at O’Hare. They have been extremely busy with lowering ceilings, gusty southeast winds and snow. When you fly a lot, you realize how many lives these men and women have in their hands. You can hear the urgency in their voices today…saying things like “Turn now sir…then go down to the end…it is imoprtant that you do it now since I have a company heavy on a 2 1/2 mile final.”

It is interesting to hear controllers say things like, “Rapidly deteriorating weather… 2 1/2 miles light blowing snow…vertical visibility 1500 feet…RVR 3000…winds 130 at 12 gusting to 17 but they have been to 21…temperature -3…dew point -7…O’Hare altimeter 30.28.” The visibility has since dropped to 3/4 of a mile and the vertical visibility to 1200 feet and then to 1/4 mile with vertical visibility of 800 feet.

You can listen here. The link is from https://www.liveatc.net. Fascinating listening…

A traffic management program is in place at O’Hare, potentially dealying inbound flights by over an hour. Departing flights are currently delayed as much as 30 minutes.

A winter storm warning is effect for the Chicagoland, with snow, sleet and freezing rain continuing through the afternoon. Up to two inches of snow and sleet expected with one quarter of an inch of ice accumulation. Temperatures should hold steady in the upper 20s below slowly rising overnight and improving conditions.

A United Airlines plane slid off a taxiway this morning at the Des Moines Airport as it prepared to takeoff for O’Hare, causing the closure of the DSM Airport. Freezing rain was occurring at DSM.

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