KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Big, white, fluffy clouds against a bright blue sky are nothing short of picturesque to an everyday bystander, but to someone whose job depends on where those cotton candy clouds are about to go, the day could be anything but picture perfect.
“Once those big cotton ball clouds start to tower up, that is when we know a thunderstorm is about to roll in,” Senior Airman Chavis, battlefield forecaster, 19th Expeditionary Weather Squadron, out of Fort Bragg, N.C., said.
Members of the 19th EWXS provide weather and forecast information to military air and ground assets throughout Afghanistan. The information they brief on a daily and sometimes hourly basis plays a major role on any movement taking place that day.
“All military operations are affected by the weather, even if they know it or not,” said Air Force Staff Sgt. Jason Bingham, battlefield forecaster, 19th EWXS out of Fort Hood, Texas.
Battlefield forecasters and weather systems support cadre are utilized 24/7 to keep military missions going by maintaining weather equipment and monitoring weather conditions.
By using tactical weather systems, battlefield weather personnel are able to accurately provide detailed information about the surrounding atmosphere.
“The systems observe the current weather conditions for an area which help us decide what the weather is going to do that day,” Chavis said.
Chavis added that weather forecasting consists of many moving parts, which include models of past weather and atmospheric data, real time data of what is currently going on, and different algorithms that help predict what the weather is going to do in the future.
“All of these things help us understand what is actually occurring, compared to what the model said is supposed to be happening,” he said.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Karlie Rees, battlefield forecaster, 19th EWXS, out of Fort Riley, Kan., elaborated on weather forecasting, saying that forecasting is very dynamic and numerous variables play into the weather.
“The slightest change in the atmosphere can change the entire forecast,” Rees said.
Every detail matters when it comes to weather forecasting, so when equipment isn’t properly functioning there are problems across the board.
“When systems are down and give jacked up observations, it not only equals a loss of equipment, but a loss of money and potentially a loss of lives,” Chavis said.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Sarah Doyle, weather systems support cadre, 19th EWXS, out of Camp Blanding, Fla., described how it is extremely important to know exactly what’s going on in the sky, not only to keep operations moving, but to give medical evacuation aircraft precise information so they know what to expect when picking up and dropping off patients in different areas.
“If a sensor is malfunctioning and reading clear conditions, and there is a (medical evacuation) running into clouds and can’t see where to land, that’s a big problem,” Doyle said.
Which is why Bingham, stationed at Kandahar Airfield, and Doyle, stationed at Bagram Airfield, traveled to Spin Boldak to troubleshoot a sensor that was not properly functioning.
“Whenever one sensor is down, less information is available for an accurate forecast,” Bingham said.
“Everything depends on the weather,” Doyle reiterated.
Since there were no weather personnel at Forward Operating Base Spin Boldak, which is a common occurrence at smaller FOBs in Afghanistan, Bingham and Doyle made a special trip to make sure all the equipment got back up and running.
They successfully simplified the troubleshooting process for the next time the sensor goes down due to loss of power. Having an electrician install a reset button on the outlet that powers the sensor now takes the troubleshooting process one-step further over the phone for someone who may not be familiar with this equipment.
“Situations like this go to show how important it is to have weather personnel at as many bases as possible,” Doyle said. “More weather bodies mean a bigger network of communication to fix things a lot quicker and keep birds in the air. “
Currently, members of the 19th EWXS have one of the few job skills that allow them to be fully integrated with the U.S. Army as staff weather officers for both Air Force and Army assets.
They also work along side the Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard as joint force multipliers. Most members of the 19th EWXS who are deployed to Afghanistan are serving six-month tours alongside their Army counterparts.