flying in chicago

I’m a weather hawk. I constantly watch it in my area. Lately I’ve been focusing on the airport METARs as a way to both learn to read them and try and get a feel for what the differences may be across the airports in the areas during similar weather conditions.

But something funky is going on with KWPK’s station.

For the last couple days, even before our recent heavy-storm weekend, it seems like there aren’t any METARs being reported for KPWK. I use a weather widget on my Mac that pulls the METARs from NOAA’s aviation weather service, but it’s been giving me blank readings for KPWK. Even a direct link to NOAA’s METAR page for KPWK returns an error.

http://adds.aviationweather.gov/metars/index.php?submit=1&station_ids=KPWK

I wonder if something happened to the reporting station…

Mother nature likes me. Here’s Midway’s METAR just a few hours before I head over:

KMDW: 651Z 35005KT 10SM FEW041 SCT060 28/18 A3010

Winds out of the North at 5kts, visibility 10 miles, a few clouds at 4,100 and scattered at 6,000. Just South of us in Lansing, IL the sky is clear and the winds are reporting calm.

KIGQ: 645Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR 27/19 A3010

Here’s hoping it stays the same.