Pilots in Alaska are able to maintain “situational awareness” of the weather with the help of Alaska Weather, a half-hour TV program created jointly by the Anchorage PBS station KAKM and the National Weather Service (NWS). Recent programming changes at KAKM have changed when the program is aired around the state. If you aren’t finding the program when you used to watch it, check to see if it has shifted time slot, or in some cases even to a different channel. Programming changes at KAKM/Alaska Public Media appear to be responsible for the shift in air times. KUAC, the PBS TV station in Fairbanks, initially announced cancellation of the program. Fortunately, station management responded to feedback from the aviation community and resumed broadcast of the program, but at a new time and channel. If these program changes have impacted your ability to view the program, please let us know!
New schedule
According to NWS, the new show times are as depicted below:
This may still be a bit dynamic, so check with NWS for the latest schedule information.
Background
Alaska Weather dates back some four decades to the early days of public television. It started life as “Aviation Weather” devoted primarily to aviation, before broadening its scope to include more public and marine forecasts. In between the aviation and marine forecasts, the show includes a short segment on a safety related topic. Two days a week that segment is “Hangar Flying” hosted by the Alaskan Aviation Safety Foundation, which introduces the viewers to aviation topics and personalities around the state.
Alaska Weather covers conditions at a state-wide scale, and provides a two-day forecast of the synoptic patterns that are influencing our weather. In my own experience, this has been helpful to have in my head before I start checking weather for a flight, especially when headed to a different region of the state, where conditions might be quite different from those in my local area. It also helps evaluate whether I can expect to make the return flight, which is often information outside the range of the normal aviation forecasts.
I believe the program has many viewers other than pilots and mariners. Alaska is full of outdoor people who hike, ski, hunt, camp, travel by canoe, dog sled and snow machine, all of which makes them vulnerable to the weather. Rural residents also tend to pay close attention to the weather that impacts their subsistence and travel activities.
More opportunities to watch?
The internet wasn’t around when Alaska Weather started in the middle 70’s. Since that time, we have a much greater range of choices to obtain weather information. Today, in addition to viewing on television, after 6 pm each day the program is available online at: http://www.weather.gov/afc/tv While this creates schedule flexibility, not everyone has access to the internet, or sufficient bandwidth to view it in this form.
As we understand from pilot training, weather forecasts are a very perishable commodity. If you end up viewing Alaska Weather on one of the Alaska Public Media stations (Anchorage, Juneau and Bethel) at 5 a.m. the next morning, the forecasts are already twelve hours old. Under dynamic conditions, the value of this information may be much diminished.
Please study the new broadcast schedule, and make sure you know how to find Alaska Weather in your community. If these schedule changes have negatively impacted your ability to view the program, please speak up. Below are points of contact for the stations involved. If you comment, please send me a copy: [email protected].
Alaska Public Media (KAKM-TV Anchorage, KTOO-TV Juneau, KYUK-TV Bethel):
http://www.alaskapublic.org/about/contact/
or email Kristen Doogan, Director of TV Programing and On Air Promotions, Alaska Public Media: [email protected]
KUAC-TV Fairbanks:
http://kuac.org/about-us/contact-us/
