rda.ucar.edu/datasets/ds464.0/docs/ASOS.newsLocal News
Storm Warning
Ex-federal official says equipment unsafe
8/21/01
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
By SALLY CAPPON@newspress.com
A one-time head of the National Weather
Service office in Santa Maria alleges
he was demoted, threatened with termination
and placed on unpaid leave after he wrote a
letter revealing safety problems with weather
equipment at a Central Coast airport.
Gary Ryan, a 30-year NWS employee, filed a
whistle-blower action last month with the
Office of Special Counsel in Washington, D.C.
In a formal disclosure of information, he
charged that the Automated Surface Observing
System (ASOS) at the Paso Robles Municipal
Airport is a danger to public safety. He
recommended human observers to provide backup
for the unmanned instruments.
If the Office of Special Counsel finds
likelihood of wrongdoing, the disclosure is
referred to the head of the Department of
Commerce, who is required to conduct an
investigation and write a report.
ASOS equipment has been installed at some
1,000 sites around the country, including the
Santa Barbara Municipal Airport, during the
past decade and has allegedly been linked to
problems elsewhere, including the plane crash
that killed John F. Kennedy Jr. in July 1999.
The Santa Barbara airport ASOS is backed up by
round-the-clock human observers, under FAA
contract, who can correct inaccurate readings.
At the Santa Maria Public Airport, tower
personnel monitor ASOS readings when the tower
is in operation. Paso Robles, as a class D, or
lowest-level airport based on landings and
usage, does not qualify for back-up personnel.
Mr. Ryan spent 13 years at the Santa Maria
weather office. After it closed in 1996, he
became data program manager at the NWS office
in Oxnard, which provides forecasts for much
of Southern California. He was responsible for
inspecting ASOS sites throughout the area,
including those at Santa Barbara and Santa
Maria.
In a June 2, 2000 letter to Paso Robles
airport manager Roger Oxborrow, Mr. Ryan
stated that the ASOS did not respond quickly
to changing and erratic fog conditions. He
recommended keeping the observers who oversaw
the equipment during a lengthy test period.
However, the observers were reassigned when
the ASOS was quietly put in official
stand-alone operation by the NWS last January.
A month later, the equipment failed for
several hours during a stormy holiday weekend
so pilots were unable to get weather
information for the airport.
No accidents or close calls have been reported
at Paso Robles or Santa Barbara County, due to
the ASOS equipment.
However, Mr. Ryan is worried about the
potential for accidents, since that particular
ASOS has a history of unreliability.
According to written comparative logs between
automated and human observations in 1999-2000,
snow was reported on a day when there was no
snow (the NWS later blamed spider webs). There
also were conflicting wind and visibility
readings.
Mr. Ryan is believed to be the first Weather
Service official to publicly reveal a problem
with the $230 million ASOS program.
Instruments automatically measure and report
temperature, wind, visibility, ceiling,
precipitation, barometric pressure and dew
point.
In a separate potential problem for ASOS, Rep.
Ron Paul (R-Texas) wrote a letter to Attorney
General John Ashcroft in May requesting an
official investigation of ASOS, based on
alleged evidence from a Texas observer that
the automated equipment gave inaccurate
reports and NWS personnel falsified records to
cover errors.
According to the Texas federal contractor,
faulty ASOS readings may have contributed to
some airplane tragedies, including the death
of New Jersey state Sen. Charles Yates, Mr.
Paul wrote.
Some pilots blame inaccurate weather
information from the Martha's Vineyard ASOS as
playing a role in the Kennedy crash. NBC
medical correspondent Dr. Bob Arnot, flying
the same route at the same time as the
ill-fated Kennedy flight, said he received an
all-clear for his flight from Federal Aviation
Administration authorities but found he was
unable to see Martha's Vineyard from the air.
Dr. Arnot, an instrument-rated pilot, landed
safely at
Nantucket. His observations and data from area
ASOS sites were cited in the National
Transportation Safety Board report of the
Kennedy crash.
Mr. Ryan said the NWS has become sensitive to
negative comments about the ASOS over the past
decade. Alleging increased "secrecy" by the
agency in dealing with the public, he said
some data from the automated system are "just
plain wrong."
"All this is happening at a time when the
measurement of global weather and climate data
assumes great political importance," said Mr.
Ryan, whose books on the climates of Santa
Barbara, Los Angeles and Paso Robles have been
published by the NWS.
He said ASOS was originally intended to
replace human observers, but that concept was
scrapped after pilots and airport personnel
complained about incorrect readings,
particularly for ceilings and visibility.
Todd Morris, meteorologist in charge of the
NWS office in Oxnard, said recently that ASOS
"was never designed to replace human
observers."
Meteorologists also use radar and satellite
data to make forecasts, he said.
Immediately after Mr. Ryan sent his letter,
with copies to the NWS regional office in Salt
Lake City, among others, he said he got a
phone call at home from Kristine Nelson, ASOS
program manager for the Western United States,
ordering him to rescind the letter.
After doing so, he said he was told by Ms.
Nelson to call everyone to whom copies were
sent, telling them the letter was rescinded.
Mr. Ryan said she subsequently told him to
have the Paso Robles observers stop making
comparison logs.
Four days after writing the letter, Mr. Ryan
said he was threatened with suspension or
termination by Mr. Morris, who headed the
Santa Maria weather office before Mr. Ryan.
The next week, Mr. Morris removed Mr. Ryan
from his supervisory position and had the
password to Mr. Ryan's computer changed. Mr.
Morris later said he needed access to the
computer to get Paso Robles weather
information sought by NWS Regional Director
Vickie Nadolski.
Mr. Morris said he also needed personnel files
previously handled by Mr. Ryan.
As a result of the threats of termination and
loss of his supervisory post and computer, Mr.
Ryan said he went on sick leave due to severe
stress. He was put on unpaid leave on Oct. 2
by Mr. Morris, who rejected several medical
excuses from doctors as "inadequate" and
"unacceptable."
The docked pay was restored by the NWS last
January after Mr. Ryan hired an attorney. He
retired from the NWS May 15.
Mr. Morris, who previously said Mr. Ryan
should have obtained his approval before
sending out the letter, last month declined
comment on the termination and sick leave
allegations.
"I think it's wrong for me to even speak about
it," he said, adding, "It's not in my best
interest."
Mr. Ryan has filed no action seeking any
monetary damages.
"It's not for myself at all," he said. "It's
to have justice served. From day one it was a
safety issue. It still is."
