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Originally Posted by Cruise  I've looked through our winter operation manual and nowhere did I find anything to determine intensities of FZRA. For SN....the chart is there as a function of temp., vis., and day/night to determine intensities. |
It's kind of funny that you bring this up. There have been times it was snowing so hard in Milwaukee that visibility was down to 1/2 mile. Using the chart we have for determining snowfall intensity this would be classified as "heavy". ATIS, no surprise, was broadcasting "light snow". On average the airport would shut down for an hour for snow removal, then it would open for 15 minutes, then have to shut down again for another hour for snow removal. Yeah, that sounds like "light" snow to me
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I'm not sure but they may do this with visibility, too. One night we were returning to MKE and the TAF was obviously blown. Visibility was supposed to be >6 but when we checked ATIS it was 1.25. As we approached, the RVR reports kept going down, down, down until the magic 2400 where it remained (convenient, huh?). We shot the approach down to minimums (had to go down to 100 above TDZE) got the runway in sight and landed. The visibility was so bad I could barely see the taxiway exit signs. I almost had to make my FO get out and lead the way with a white cane! As we were taxiing to the ramp (with the same atrocious visibility), ground control was advertising "RVR better than 6,000"
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With the best of intentions I made an illegal landing and only realized that I clearly busted visibility minimums after I was on the ground and saw for myself how bad the vis was. (If there are any Feds reading this the above confession was coerced after 16 straight hours of interrogation, beatings, and electro-shock treatment and cannot be used in a court of law
).