Photo above – A look above the Bald Mountain (7BM) AWOS site located approximately 11 miles east of Cottonwood Pass. This is one of 13 Colorado mountain weather stations now equipped with FAA weather cameras.
The Colorado Division of Aeronautics and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have announced the availability of 52 new aviation weather cameras installed on the Division’s network of 13 Mountain Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) sites. In addition to receiving accurate and certified aviation weather information, pilots now have the ability to visually observe weather conditions high in the Colorado Rockies before they depart the airport. Colorado’s new aviation weather cameras can be accessed at https://weathercams.faa.gov.
Colorado FAA Weather Cameras
This innovative effort was made possible through a partnership developed between the Colorado Division of Aeronautics and the FAA’s Alaska Weather Camera Program. For many years, the FAA has administered a Weather Camera Program in the State of Alaska, providing visual weather information to pilots in that state’s challenging environment. Currently, the Alaska Program has a network of over 230 camera sites. The 13 new camera sites now operational in Colorado are the first in the U.S. outside of Alaska to be incorporated into the FAA weather camera network.
Walton Peak AWOSOn the FAA’s Weather Camera website, Colorado pilots (and others with an interest) can access current weather camera images and compare them to clear day views, and also have the ability to playback a loop of past images to ascertain weather trends. The FAA’s upgraded website also provides one-stop access to a variety of safety of flight information, including current conditions (METARs), terminal area forecasts (TAFs), pilot reports, and radar and satellite imagery.
“The Colorado Division of Aeronautics is excited to have had this opportunity to partner with the FAA in yet another joint effort to enhance aviation safety in Colorado,” said CDOT Aeronautics Director David Ulane. “The Division is proud to continue our heritage of pioneering new initiatives that further our mission to help advance a safe, efficient, and effective air and space system in Colorado.”
This initiative was funded by the Division with $226,000 of funds approved by the Colorado Aeronautical Board and allocated to FAA under a Reimbursable Agreement. Under this arrangement, the FAA and the Governor’s Office of Information Technology installed and configured four weather cameras on each of Colorado’s Mountain 13 AWOS units.
This innovative project marks the third such collaboration between the Division of Aeronautics and FAA, where the Division has funded FAA-completed safety improvements on our behalf. Previous reimbursable agreements with FAA include the development of Colorado’s Wide Area Multi-Lateration System, and ongoing Remote Tower Project at the Northern Colorado Regional Airport (FNL).
