Statewide Automatic Weather Observation Systems

I started learning how to fly back in 1981–82. One of the things I remember most was trying to understand weather. I had to understand my personal limits and how weather could determine a decision to fly or not.

I recall struggling with the weather information available during flight prep. Back in those days there were only a few FSS weather stations across the state of Minnesota. Pilots had widespread coverage gaps and had to guesstimate the weather conditions they were going to be flying through.

Forty years ago, we had less than a half-dozen Automatic Weather Observation Systems, commonly k...