Erie Still on the Radar?

By Jim Carroll, Erie Times-News, Pa.

Mar. 2–Local officials don’t need Doppler radar to see the dark clouds forming over the future of Erie’s weather station.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s lease for the weather station at Erie International Airport is up in September, and the federal agency said it wants to study the need for the station before it renews.

NOAA wants to see how the new $5.2 million ASR 11 radar unit the Federal Aviation Administration installed at the airport in 2006 compares with the weather station’s older radar in its ability to detect lake-effect snow.

“At this point we are reviewing data,” NOAA spokeswoman Marcy Katcher said.

NOAA tried to close the Erie station in the 1990s as a cost-cutting measure, but it ran into opposition from Save Our Station — a local advocacy group formed in 1994 by Franklin Township Supervisor David Henderson and Joy Greco, of Millcreek, who was then an Erie County councilwoman.

The group, aided by U.S. Rep. Phil English of Erie, R-3rd Dist., won a reprieve for the station by arguing that radar from Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Buffalo could not accurately enough detect local weather changes, particularly lake-effect snow.

The local station was kept alive, but at a greatly reduced operational level. Manpower was reduced to one weather-watcher.

Greco said she believes the reduction has gone further — that in recent months there has been no staff at the station.

“They did have one fella there, but they don’t even have one person now,” she said.

Erie International Airport Executive Director Kelly Fredericks said he believes one NOAA technician visits the local station on a very irregular basis.

Greco said she still doesn’t believe radar from Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh is adequate, and she is unconvinced that the FAA’s traffic-control radar can fill the role of weather radar.

But Greco said the difference now is that two Erie television stations have installed modern Doppler equipment and have qualified meteorologists to provide analysis.

“Erie now has the benefit of a couple of TV stations with radar, and that is the only saving factor for us,” she said.

Airport administrators cautioned members of the Erie Municipal Airport Authority that they might have to seek a new tenant to replace NOAA.

Airport Authority President Louis Porreco and Vice President Tony Logue questioned the ability of the National Weather Service to quickly detect and report sudden changes in Erie’s weather if NOAA were to close the airport’s station.

They directed administrators to bring the issue to the attention of English and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Fredericks told the board he will contact NOAA to get more information, but the agency’s correspondence so far indicated they were only interested in leasing space through September.

“I think NOAA might be looking to move out after Sept. 30,” he said.

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