UC Airport Repairing Weather System

The Upper Cumberland Regional Airport working to get its automated weather observing system operational again.

Airport Director Dean Selby said they use an older model that is having recurring issues as it ages. Selby said the system is the official weather reporting station for the Putnam/White County area so any malfunctions have an impact on the local community as well.

“So it is an issue, but it’s just one of those necessary things that you’ve got to work through,” Selby said. “And we’re working through the channels right now to try to get a better solution rather than just a patchwork solution. In the next week or so hopefully we have a permanent solution for that.”

Selby said the system is owned by T-DOT so the replacement and any repairs are paid for by the state. He said they expect to have repairs completed in the next week.

He said the optimal solution would be to get an all-new system they can place in a more suitable place within the airport.

“It’s a computer hung in the middle of a field way out on the other end sitting in a box,” Selby said. “A Windows computer sitting in a box in the hot sun. That just doesn’t make sense to me, so we’re trying to relocate the CPU out of the heat back into an air-conditioned facility.”

Selby said if the long-term solution is delayed they will work to find another way to get the system online in the next week.

“They could replace the CPU in this current system and fix some of the other issues that we have with power condition and stuff now and make it work kind of like it did work, the way it’s been working for years,” Selby said.

Selby said they work with the National Weather Service to monitor the system so they know when it is having problems.

“They know that it’s down,” Selby said. “They’re usually the first one to tell us, ‘Hey, you’ve got a problem.’ Because half the time they notice it before we even notice that it goes off the air.”