I was working as a contractor at the old Homestead Air Force Station and during the morning site briefing (7 am) the officer in charge told us we had to be under cover by 4:45 pm as a lightening storm would hit at 5:03 pm.
“I quipped - not 5:02?”
“He gave me a stern 5:03!”
We were under cover a bit late (4:50?), but the front and a wall of rain hit at 5:03 pm!
I’m not sure if it is their super-dooper radar or that weather near the coast in Florida is that predictable, but I was impressed.
I find it difficult to believe that it was due to “unexpected” weather. (There’s that word again!)
“We were under cover a bit late (4:50?), but the front and a wall of rain hit at 5:03 pm!”
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
I’ve never experienced S.FL weather and its timekeeping. I have been in the mountains of NM during monsoon season (typically Aug/Sept) where you can very nearly set your watch to a storm rolling in right around 4pm every day!
Yeah. Exactly.
Now we know that weather imaging and RORSATs look for ship movements...at a minimum.
But they can also do weather - oddly enough
The meteorological conditions should have been known.
Lost during an UNREP? That’s three “mistakes”.
Losing a jet is bad. Losing it due to unexpected weather - bad chains or a failure of chains is bad. But does happen. Scheduling an UNREP (failure to stop an UNREP) while storms bad enough to wash an F18 off of the deck is unexcusable!
There should be no "unexpected" weather for a US military ship/airplane/truck/base. Anyone else can log onto the internet and find out what the weather is, and is going to be in the near future. Or you could just look around and see what was likely to happen next.
An aircraft carrier must have its own weather sensors and somebody paying attention to the weather, like even a small airport.
The only reason it could be "unexpected" is that everyone was asleep or simply not doing their jobs.
If it was summertime, and the storm was off the gulf, you can just about set your watch to them.
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