The weather monitoring station operated by Nav Canada at the Estevan Regional Airport is making the shift towards automation.
Richard Reetz, the manager of the airport, said the weather monitoring station has traditionally been staffed by three or four people, and they have been responsible for observations.
Those jobs will be lost when automation takes over.
“Starting August 30, those observations will no longer be done by manned observers,” said Reetz. “It’s going to be done by an automated weather station.”
Nav Canada has always contracted people for observations and weather reporting at airport.
A small building is being constructed for the automated system. A large amount of electronics are required.
“The system is nothing like the weather stations you can buy privately,” he said.
Construction on the building started in mid-July and should be completed in early August.
Reetz said this isn’t anything new for Nav Canada. They have been shifting towards automated systems for their weather monitoring for the last 20 years, and Estevan is one of the later airports to be converted.
He expects the cost advantages would be part of the reason for switching from manual to automated weather reporting. But an automated service can also give updated weather by the minute.
Reetz stressed there are both advantages to having automated weather delivery.
Having a weather service is advantageous for the airport, and for the region in general, he said. There was speculation regarding if Estevan would maintain weather observation services at all, he said, and the airport was able to successfully lobby to maintain the weather service in the city.
“The alternative to not getting an automated system would be to lose all weather observations in Estevan, as far as aircraft and the airport in general, so we were very fortunate to be selected to get an automated system,” he said.
