National Weather Service - Kansas City Center Weather Service Unit

Ouline of airspace boundary for Kansas City Center

Airways Airspace ZKC Airspace Outline

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Weather Briefing	Radar Mosaic	CCFP	CWAs

Center Weather Service Unit (CWSU) Kansas City

Mission:
Kansas City Center Weather Service meteorologists provide weather support and consultation to FAA air traffic managers and controllers. Rerouting of aircraft around hazardous weather is based largely on forecasts provided by the CWSU meteorologist. National products issued by the CWSU meteorologist include Center Weather Advisories (CWA) and Meteorological Impact Statements (MIS). The CWA is a short term advisory valid for two hours or less describing areas of hazardous weather in progress or forecast to develop. The MIS is a forecast product valid up to 12 hours describing areas of weather that may impact air traffic operations.


Operations:
ZKC CWSU meteorologists provide formal weather briefings to FAA supervisors within the Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) for the day and evening shifts. Verbal briefings are given to individual controllers at the ARTCC and tower control facilities around the ZKC airspace, as well as to equipment technicians when weather conditions dictate. Two types of written products are also provided by the CWSU meteorologists. The Meteorological Impact Statement (MIS) is a 4 to 12 hour planning forecast of weather conditions expected to impact the ZKC air traffic. The Center Weather Advisory (CWA) is a short-term warning of hazardous weather conditions provided to all aviation interests, including private pilots, towers, flight service stations, and commercial airlines. Thus, a CWA is similar to, but more localized than, the Airmets and Sigmets issued by the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) in Kansas City, Missouri.

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