https://weathercams.faa.gov/

The weather cams site has gotten really good. It's seemingly a one-stop-shop for wx review and planning with lots of imagery overlay and visual station status. I hopped on today to see if I could peep the sky cover in central TX for the eclipse but something became very apparent: the cams coverage for the SE half of the lower 48 is really lacking.



CO, CA, OR, ID, ME...all well covered with 30+ cams per state. MN only has 5. AK, where the cams first were implemented is pretty well covered. The site even brings in all the NAV CANADA cams.

What's going on with the states that have barely any cams? Is this a state aeronautics cooperative program, where they must coordinate with the FAA for funding? Is it up to airport managers to spearhead camera installation and configuration to upload images to FAA hosting?

The cams have had a real effect on flying safety in Alaska. Now instead of flying 1-2 hours to a pass only to find it is closed or total scud you can do it from the couch and just stay home. Less chance of making a stupid call. I suspect the priority of placement is directed toward more dangerous areas like passes, high flow routes in the mountains, or water/mountain side runways which may have more weather affected rapid visibility changes. You can probably get very reliable weather report most any town in Texas not so much in the mountains.
DENNY

+1 Big fan of wx cameras


With the prevalence of high speed internet, cheaper tech and everyone having a internet connected smartphone in their pocket I’m surprised there aren’t more

Should be standard issue with any new AWOS/ASOS/etc weather station, and should be default installed on any federal government structure that has power and internet running to it.

At present, Montana and Colorado are the two states that have the most FAA Weather Cameras, outside of Alaska. This is because those two states have partnered with the FAA to install cameras in those states, ie: The State Aeronautics Divisions are paying most of the costs of purchasing the systems and maintaining them.

Idaho has quite a few cameras, but I don't think any of them are actual FAA Weather Cams. Some were installed and operated by the State, some by Idaho Pilots, some by lodges, etc.

The FAA Weather Camera program in the lower 48 is vastly different than the one in Alaska, at least in who pays for the cameras and the continued operation. That is changing some....the FAA is now offering to fund SOME cameras in the Lower 48 states in a cooperative program.

That said, Montana and Colorado seem to be the only states so far that have really bought in to the program. Some of our cameras are sponsored also. The medevac community loves them because they can nearly always get almost instant weather information for some of the more remote hi line communities, when they get a request for medevac in the middle of the night. Otherwise, they often have to roust the airport manager for information.....and they're not always available.

Last fall, I was returning to Bozeman from Lewistown in my plane. It was windy, and snowy. I looked at Bozeman Pass cameras and diverted to the north, where I had a smooth (but VERY slow) trip, in good visibility. Pass was not just ugly, it was closed.

I'm a big fan, having used the prototype FAA Weather Cams in central Alaska, and strongly supported the program as it grew in AK.

Pilots in the Lower 48 are a little slower to buy into the program it seems.....weather reporting stations are closer together here, and old habits are hard to lose. But, these weather cameras offer more data than any AWOS/ASOS.

Trying to get at least one set of cameras in a back country airport in MT. FAA is supposedly evaluating the Starlink system as a data source for these things....much cheaper service than other remote options.

Take a look at the Montana and Colorado Cameras, and consider the information available there. And, btw, if you're fairly low, your smart phone will download the data.

MTV

What do they claim it costs to install a webcam?

Another good resource, but without overlays

Windy app with the cameras turned on
https://apps.apple.com/app/id1161387262

State DOT cameras may be another source for a live view of weather. I had the Alaska State DOT camera site bookmarked as a source for WX related decisions while working up there. Particularly helpful when you know the area well and the camera has a hill or ridge in the background that you know if hidden it's a no-go. They had a few in the flats on the Parks Hwy that were very useful for the commute to DNP from Fairbanks.

TR

Thank you for that tip re webcams in Windy! Didn’t know about…

Another possible source for weather cams that I just discovered is ALERTWildfire. It's a consortium of The University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Oregon providing fire cameras and tools to help firefighters and first responders. They have a pretty decent number of cameras in OR,ID,NV and northern CA so far that can be helpful in flight planning.

Not sure how much overlap there is with the other camera sites, but thought I'd link it.

Click on the Map view and zoom out to see the coverage.

Yep the Alert wildfire cams a great . Lots of cameras all over the place . Been using it for years .

Thank you for the ‘Alert Wildfire’ link. Adding that to the weather resources on https://fly2ak.com